Stubborn Sekhukhune hold Sundowns to draw

Reigning DStv Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns dropped two crucial points when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Sekhukhune United at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday.

Sundowns were coming from a 4-0 win against Kaizer Chiefs while the hosts lost their previous match 1-0 against Richards Bay.

Playing in front of 12 000 spectators in Polokwane, Masandawana opened the scoring through Peter Shalulile on the stroke of half time.

But Babina Noko quickly found the back of the net seconds into the second half through their captain Linda Mntambo.

“We didn’t have a good start. We sat back and we waited for them to take the initiative and we only reacted after that goals and that put us on a back foot,” said Sekhukhune coach Kaitano Tembo.

“I was not quite happy with that and also we conceded a goal in a critical time where we could have just sat back and defended the last minute. But second half we needed to say some harsh words to the players, in order to perform.

Meanwhile, his counterpart at Sundowns Manqoba Mngqithi was satisfied with the performances from his players despite the results.

“On this one I will say it was inconsistent in terms of the result but not the performance. In terms of the performance I think the team performed very well and they deserve to win the match.

‘We must also give credit to the opponents sometimes, their goalkeeper from time to time. Maybe a lack of emotional intelligence sometimes but never the issue of performance,” he said.

“Maybe lack of emotional intelligence sometimes but never the issue of players not performing to the level that we wanted.”

Meanwhile, TS Galaxy played to a 0-0 draw against Golden Arrows in the other DStv Premiership match on Saturday.

More to follow