A late strike from Ben Motshwari catapulted Wits to a 1-0 Premiership win over Celtic on Sunday.
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Johannesburg – A late strike from Ben Motshwari catapulted Wits to a 1-0 Premiership victory over Bloemfontein Celtic at the Free State Stadium on Sunday.
Motshwari punished the Celtic defence for a crucial mistake in the 85th minute to snatch all the points in the encounter.
Wits’ persistence paid-off as they were held until the dying minutes in the match to score.
A mistake from Thapelo Morena resulted in the opening goal, after his miscontrolled ball wobbled into the path of Motshwari.
With only the goalkeeper Patrick Tignyemb to beat the midfielder made no mistake.
The teams sussed each other out in the opening quarter with testing ball into each other’s halves.
Celtic made attempts to catch Wits sleeping early on with a searching ball into the box by Lerato Lamola that found no recipient.
Wits showed no signs of trepidation away from home as they took the attack to the home side.
Creative midfielder Jabulani Shongwe looked to provide the spark for his team in the seventh minute when his neat touches with Ben Motswari led to a shot at goal.
Shongwe scuffed the chance that Tignyemb watched fly over the target away from danger.
The Wits defence was seemingly encouraged to head forward as Buhle Mkhwanazi made a run into the opposition half in the 24th minute but lost the ball to Morena.
Minutes went by without either team making any headway into the dangerous territory.
Celtic launched a fierce counter in the 30th minute with Mukuka Mulenga and Musa Nyathama taking shots at the goalkeeper without luck.
Before the interval Thulani Hlatshwayo saw his miscued volley bounce wide of the target after a Siyabonga Nhlapo cross.
At half-time there was nothing separating the teams as scores were goalless.
Mulenga made full use of his bursting pace as he wiggled into the packed Wits defence but the ball was nicked from his toes.
In the 55th minute Musa Bilankulu made a dashing run near the edge of the box and laid a through-ball that had Nyatama flagged for offside after the defence held its line.
Wits’ attack spearheaded by Chris Katongo pushed the ball into the flanks but were denied space by Celtics.
Defender Dumsani Zuma made a crunching tackle on Wits striker Henrico Botes.
Playing at home in-front of their boisterous fans Celtic had a no-nonsense approach at the back as they refused to concede.
For some period in the second half Celtic was stuck in the Wits territory as they probed for a goal that would snatch victory.
In the 72nd minute veteran striker Katongo’s well-timed run beat the offside trap, but his side footer sailed past the goalmouth.
The opening goal came as a result of a lapse in concentration by the Celtic defence.
It had been a tight affair overall but Wits were persistent enough to wait until late in the match to make a dash with the points. – Sapa
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