STEVE BARKER and his Stellenbosch troops have a chance to exact revenge on Orlando Pirates for that controversial 3-1 defeat from last year’s MTN8 final.
Stellies set up a repeat final with the Buccaneers by beating Sekhukhune United 3-1 win on aggregate over the two-legged penultimate stage of the season-opening knockout tournament.
Steve Barker’s men – 2-0 winners at home in the first leg – ended the match off as a contest early into the second leg played at a virtually empty Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Saturday evening. Mthetheleli Mthiyane scored the all-important goal with a brilliant grass-cutter from outside the box, Renaldo Lerner diving in vain to keep the ball out.
And just like that, Sekhukhune found themselves needing four goals to move a stp further to achieving their objective of winning their first ever elite league trophy. Granted nothing is impossible in this game, but even for a team that scored three goals in their league match midweek, this was a tall order. And they duly failed to get over it.
Yet it could easily have been a different game altogether. Aware of the mammoth task at hand, Sekhukhune started on the front foot and nearly took the lead but Bradley Grobler’s attempt from inside the box bounced off the crossbar after he’d been set up by Keletso Makgalwa.
Eric Tinkler’s team were then let down by poor officiating shortly after they’d gone a goal down when the referee and his assistant incredulously failed to spot a handball inside the box by Devin Titus.
It should have been a penalty and who knows just how that would have turned things around, there was still a little over an hour of play remaining at that point.
Siphelele Mkhize pulled one back for Ba Bina Noko on the 67th minute but it was merely a consolation goal. He was denied a second by Sage Stephens in injury time, the goalkeeper pushing over his shot from close range.
Now through to their successive MTN8 final, Stellies will be keen to beat a Pirates side that beat them last year albeit it in a way that left a bitter taste in the mouth.
With the score tied at 1-1 and extra time looming, Pirates won a free kick which they took quickly as the Stellies players were still remonstrating. More controversially though was the fact they took it a little further forward than where the incident had happened and Tshegofasto Mabasa scored. Relebohile Mofokeng scored the third goal.
They have the opportunity to settle matters and stop Pirates from making it a record-extending four successive victories in the MTN8.
