Wits leave it late

Asive Langwe came off the bench to help snatch a late 1-0 win for Bidvest Wits over Platinum Stars in their Absa Premiership match at the Bidvest Stadium on Wednesday evening.

The hosts had the lion’s share of the possession as they sentenced the Rustenburg outfit to a third successive loss to tighten their grip on third place.

Platinum Stars came into the game knowing that a win would see them slice the difference between them and Wits by half, but were in need of bouncing back from two successive defeats.

Gavin Hunt’s men, meanwhile, were buoyed by obtaining two successive wins and were eager to grab a stronger hold on third place by claiming a yet another victory.

The home side was the first to create an opportunity at goal when a ball fell to Jabulani Shongwe after five minutes. He opted to take it on his left foot, but he could only skew it wide of Siyabona Mpontshane’s goal.

Sthembiso Ngcobo, who was controversially left out of the Bafana Bafana squad for next month’s friendly, was blown for an offside call after a quarter of an hour, before seeing Siboniso Gumede’s cross go out of play.

The Clever Boys had a firm hold of the game by the midway point of the opening half, and they saw Siyabonga Nhlapo deliver a promising ball into the box. It however failed to meet its target as it flew just inches over Ngcobo’s head.

Henrico Botes then supplied a cross into the box eight minutes before the interval, only to see Robert Ng’ambi head a potential assist wide of Dennis Onyango’s poles.

The half was concluded by yet another promising opportunity from Wits. Papy Faty found ‘Sthem’ and the striker turned on the ball to fire his strike just millimeters off the desired target.

Calvin Kadi came so close to breaking the deadlock at the restart when he struck a header after being left unmarked inside the box, however, the crossbar was there to deny him.

Then, on the stroke of the hour, Shongwe saw his shot turn just over the angular of the goal-frame, before seeing Erwin Isaacs and Asive Langwe thrown into the mix.

Platinum Stars came out with a few attacks of their own in the closing quarter of an hour, and it saw Robert Ng’ambi fail to connect to a cross at the back post even after throwing his body in the path of the ball.

The home side grabbed the victory with both hands on 82 minutes when Langwe tapped in a Faty cross at the back post to make it 1-0.

Bidvest Wits (0) 1 (Langwe 82’)

Platinum Stars 0

Bidvest Wits: Onyango, Gumede, Booth, Kadi (Langwe 65’), Vilakazi, Ntshangase, Nhlapo, Bhasera, Shongwe (Isaacs 65’), Faty, Ngcobo (Dankwae 90+1’)

Platinum Stars: Mpontshane, Sithole, Gumede, Semenya, Mpeta, Mere (Makudubela 90’), Sarr, Mathe, Tshabalala (Hadebe 70’), Ng'ambi, Botes (Mthembu 75’)

Backpage Media