Linare held

MORIJA – Title-chasing Linare were held to a frustrating goalless draw yesterday afternoon in Morija by a Lijabatho side that left the pitch feeling they should have won the action-packed Vodacom Premier League encounter.

Linare went into the game on 28 points, six behind leaders Bantu with a game in hand and a win would have brought them to within five points of ‘A Matšo Matebele’ but ‘Tse Tala’ were clearly second best against Lijabatho and things could have been worse had the hosts not missed three clear-cut chances to win the game.

In fact, Linare were under so much pressure that the visitors looked to be counting down the minutes to the end of the game and they were lucky to leave Morija with a point.

Afterwards, Linare head coach Leslie Notši insisted a draw was a fair result and gave credit to his players for battling for 90 minutes.

“It’s a fair result, we came here expecting a tough encounter,” he said.

“Lijabatho is a very good team, we have seen for a long period extending from last season to this season that (Lijabatho) is a competitive team, so we were expecting this,” Notši added.

“I need to give credit to the players because they absorbed the pressure for 90 minutes because the game was 50/50.

“We had a lot of goal-scoring opportunities; our defence and midfield stayed strong, there was a lot of creativity and, at the same time, their defence also stayed strong,” the Linare mentor said.

Lijabatho, for their part, continued their excellent and surprising campaign and they are in fifth place after 15 games — the halfway mark of their season.

Key to their success has been their home ground which they have turned into a fortress.

Lijabatho have lost just once in six games in Morija this season and teams go there knowing they will have to fight to get anything from their trips and yesterday was no different.

The match was a catch-up fixture of a game postponed before the Christmas break due to bad weather and Lijabatho coach Charles Manda said they came into the match knowing it would be an “ugly game” because it was the first one after the festive season.

Manda bemoaned his side’s lack of finishing and said they will have to go back to the drawing board to work on it.

“Coming from the Christmas break the players are rusty, so we knew it was going to be an ugly game and that it was going to be decided by the team which was going to score the first goal,” he said.

“We squandered a lot of scoring opportunities, we just need to go back to the drawing board and rectify those to say if you have four or five chances, let’s bury one at least so that we can get the three points,” Manda said.

Lijabatho thought they should have had a penalty in the 73rd minute but after thinking for several moments, the referee instead awarded a freekick against the hosts.

The decision irked Lijabatho’s technical team, players and fans and loud groans from unhappy supporters could be heard.

Linare’s technical team and players, meanwhile, looked guilty in their relief and Manda insisted they should have been given.

“To me it was (a penalty) but the referee is the man in charge I can’t do otherwise, I am standing outside he is the one taking control of the game,” Manda bemoaned.

“(The referee) thought otherwise to say it’s a free-kick, but to me it was inside the box.

“It was a penalty but we don’t have VAR (Video Assistant Referee) here to review.

“If VAR was there, that was a clear penalty to me,” he added.

In another twist, the game started 20 minutes later than scheduled.

At around 2pm Lijabatho were still cutting the grass which meant the teams could not do their warm-up on time.

Linare complained strongly about the pitch before the game and Notši said the surface did not bring the best out of both teams.

Nonetheless, despite the drama and his side’s struggles, Notši said football was the winner in the end.

“The pitch also played a big part,” Notši said.

“As you saw, it was only when we arrived here when they were cutting grass so the surface was not going to bring the best out of both teams.

“But, all in all, the referees did a good job, they managed the game well, so I think the winner at the end was football.”

Yesterday’s results:
Lijabatho 0-0 Linare
LDF 4-0 Liphakoe
Machokha 1-0 Swallows
Lifofane 1-0 Lioli

Tlalane Phahla