Mhango inspires Celtic to victory

Gabadinho Mhango put out a Man of the Match display to see Bloemfontein Celtic do an Absa Premiership double over Orlando Pirates for the season with their 1-0 victory at the Free State Stadium on Monday afternoon.

The Malawian import scored the decisive goal of the match but also cleared the ball off the line to prevent Pirates from finding a way to salvage a point.

Both teams arrived into the encounter on the back of a poor run of results with both Celtic and Pirates having only one won match in their last three domestic encounters.

The home side were left appealing a penalty after just four minutes when Daine Klate cleared the ball off the line at the near post from a corner kick, however, the referee waved play on.

There was little to no action happening in the opening 20 minutes of the encounter, and Pirates’ first chance of the fixture came in the shape of a mis-hit from Thamsanqa Gabuza that skipped past the far post.

Celtic deservingly broke the deadlock seven minutes later when Gabadinho Mhango fooled his marker to fire home a powerful left-footed snapshot into the top right corner of the goal.

Siwelele continued to dominate proceedings in the encounter but there was little action happening in front of goal on either end of the park.

Musa Nyatama and Mhango were then involved in a quick one-two in the closing minutes of the half, however, their play, which did cause some problems for Pirates, was blown for offside.

Ernst Middendorp’s men could have had a penalty at the restart when Sifiso Myeni took the ball off Vuyani Ntanga’s feet. He connected with the player more than the ball but the referee waved play on.

Then, on 54 minutes, Nyatama struck a powerful shot from outside the box which stung the hands of Senzo Meyiwa. The goalkeeper could only smother it first time before grabbing ahold of it on the second attempt.

Ayanda Gcaba was denied of the equalizing goal on 69 minutes when Ayanda Gcaba nodded in a corner kick towards the back post, only to see it brilliantly cleared off the line by Mhango.

Celtic had the ball in the back of net deep inside stoppages when Lerato Manzini toe-poked it in from inside the box, only to see it ruled out for offside.

Bloemfontein Celtic (1) 1 (Mhango 27’)

Orlando Pirates 0

Bloemfontein Celtic: Tignyemb, Milankulu, Gabonamong, Daniels, Mzava, Letlabika, Nkausu, Nyatama, Lamola (Manzini 89’), Ntanga, Mhango (Mogorosi 93’)

Orlando Pirates: Meyiwa, Matlaba, Gcaba, Mahamutsa, Sangweni, Ntshumayelo, Makola, Klate, Myeni (Segolela 60’), Gabuza (Bacela 64’), Pelembe (Erasmus 77’)

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