Johannesburg – The Birds are still flapping and could well rediscover their flight following their hard-fought Absa Premiership victory yesterday.
And who else to give them their second wind than the old man Siyabonga Nomvethe.
The irony would not have been lost on the discerning soccer fan that in saving Swallows from automatic relegation with his headed goal, the striker essentially sunk his home province (KwaZulu-Natal) team AmaZulu who went down 2-1 to Maritzburg United to finish bottom.
Not that Nomvethe was bothered, the striker celebrated by punching the air in salute to the elated Swallows faithful who were chanting his name at the final whistle. He had in any case also scored in the Birds’ 2-1 victory over the self same AmaZulu back in December.
He limped off the pitch though. Nomvethe and Swallows will be praying the injury is not bad enough and that he will recover in time for the start of the play-offs against two National First Division sides starting next Sunday.
Yesterday, in a tension-filled encounter they went into propping up the table, it was only the diehard Swallows fans who seemed to believe their team had it in them to survive.
After all Swallows had literally contrived to get themselves in the mess they were in as they threw away no less than three leads in their last four matches – the worst perhaps being their conceding to Ajax Cape Town in the last minute on Wednesday to lose 2-1.
And for a long time here it appeared the players themselves lacked the belief as they huffed and puffed.
Though they forced Bongani Mpandle into some saves early on, they did not really press like a team desperate for victory.
Then with Maritzburg scoring first against AmaZulu and Kaizer Chiefs also taking the lead against Chippa United, the stage seemed set for a Swallows survival and all Craig Rosslee’s men needed was to score.
But they just did not seem to have the killer instinct and not even the brass band playing and the supporters singing their lungs out appeared to be of any inspirational value.
The change that mattered came upon the introduction of Lerato Chabangu some time into the second half. For many years, Swallows’ struggles were put down to their team being too old.
But on Saturday it was the veterans who stood out, Chabangu coming on and injecting some spark into their attack.
When they did find the winner, it was another oldie who created the chance – Shere Lekhothoane delivering a pin-point cross that “Bhele” headed in to send Dobsonville Stadium reverberating under the feet-stomping and chanting of the Swallows faithful delighted at seeing their team up.
But with 20 minutes still to go, there was a lot of nail-biting to be done. And when news came through that AmaZulu had equalised, the tension that enveloped this Soweto arena was palpable. And it was made worse by Celtic enjoying a good spell that saw them put Swallows under the cosh only for Sage Stephens to pull off a brilliant save to deny Thapeloi Morena.
And then Maritzburg scored a second against AmaZulu while Swallows held on to their lead until the final whistle that pre-empted scenes of delirium in the stands as young and old alike celebrated as though their club had won the championship.
But it is just a breather for the Birds, the tough play-offs looming large and Rosslee facing the unenviable task of getting his tired and ageing troops to produce a similar result on four more occasions.
One man he can definitely count on, though, is Siyabonga Nomvethe.
Moroka Swallows (0) 1
Bloemfontein Celtic 0