Ajax stun Swallows late on

Lance Davids came off the bench to drill home a seemingly impossible free-kick from range to hand Ajax Cape Town a 1-0 Absa Premiership win over Moroka Swallows at the Dobsonville Stadium on Friday evening.

The game seemed destined to end in a goalless draw, as chance after chance was wasted, and few would have suspected the Cape club to snatch the victory off a set-piece in the end.

It was another makeshift team Roger de Sa had to put out after he suffered a setback with captain Dominic Isaacs, Abbubaker Mobara and Koen van de Laak being ruled out through injury.

To make matters worse for the Urban Warriors, Zeca Marques’ men were in full confidence after they snatch their second win of the year in the midweek over Platinum Stars.

The home side was the first to offer an attack at goal when Lefa Tsutsulupa controlled the ball at the top of thigh on 12 minutes. He then let it bounce before hitting a curling effort with the outside of his foot as it sailed inches wide of the far post.

Siyabonga Nomvethe then tried to break the deadlock with a strike from range ten minutes later, but his effort didn’t faze Anssi Jaakola in goal as it went high and wide of the target.

It was, however, a rather uneventful opening half hour to the encounter as Ajax went on to see Toriq Losper nod his header narrowly wide of the back post from a cross on the left flank.

Swallows were the team doing the majority of the pressing in the closing stages of the first half, and they saw Felix Obada force a save from Jaakkola, with the Finn pushing the ball away with his foot.

Asavela Mbekile headed the Dube Birds’s attack after the interval and he tried to threaten on 49 minutes with a strike that sailed wide of Ajax’s goal.

The Urban Warriors then suffered a setback on 55 minutes when Toriq Losper had to be replaced by Cole Alexander due to an injury he sustained in the opening 45.

Granwald Scott nearly got in on goal minutes later when he tapped Eleazar Rodgers’ cross from the byline into the side netting, as the game started to see more goalmouth action.

Then, in the 70^th minute, the home side was spotted asking for a penalty, after Nazeer Allie and Obada went tumbling inside the box, but nothing was given.

Ajax did snatch the victory against the run of play when Lance Davids drilled in a low free-kick from 30-yards out to beat Etafia in goal and catch him unaware in the final minute of stoppage time.

Moroka Swallows: (0) 0

Ajax Cape Town: (0) 1 (Davids 94’)

Moroka Swallows: Etafia, Isaacs, Hendricks, Mapemba, Cohen, Mbekile, Tsutsulupa, Nergadze (Chabangu 78’), Mabalane (Wana 65’), Nomvethe, Obada

Ajax Cape Town: Jaakkola, Lebusa, Allie, Coetzee, Hlatshwayo, Sangweni (Davids 75’), Losper (Alexander 55’), Scott, Dolly, Lolo (Telinho 85’), Rodger 

By Rossella Marrai