Eleazar Rodgers came off the bench and rocked Kaizer Chiefs with two goals in the last five minutes to hand Platinum Stars a 2-1 win at the Cape Town Stadium on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Ajax Cape Town went down 3-1 to Chippa United at a packed Buffalo City Stadium in East London in the Absa Premiership.
Former Capetonian Rodgers came on in the 63rd minute for Stars to replace Bongi Ntuli, with Amakhosi 1-0 ahead after striker Camaldine Abraw netted just before halftime.
Tall front-man Rodgers got the equaliser with a powerful header in the 86th minute, after Stars striker Ntuli missed a number of chances in front of goal throughout the first hour.
Then in stoppage time, Rodgers broke the hearts of the thousands of Chiefs fans at Cape Town Stadium with a superb volley past the outstanding Amakhosi goalkeeper Reyaad Pieterse, after the ball deflected off the Chiefs wall from Ndumiso Mabena’s free kick.
But while Rodgers was the hero late in the piece, Stars coach Cavin Johnson also had his brilliant goalkeeper, Man-of-the-Match Mbongeni Mzimela, to thank for saving his team several times with a number of terrific saves to deny the likes of Abraw, Chiefs captain Siphiwe Tshabalala and William Twala.
Stars now move closer to Chiefs on the log with in fifth position on 23 points, while Steve Komphela’s side stay in fourth on 25.
In East London, Joseph Malongoane changed the game for Chippa United as the home side scored three second-half goals to knock over Ajax.
David Zulu grabbed the equaliser for Chippa in the 51st minute to cancel out Prince Nxumalo’s second-minute opener.
Then the skilful Malongoane broke open the game nine minutes later with a cool finish to give Chippa the lead, and substitute Xola Mlambo finished things off in stoppage time to move his team up to sixth position on the league log on 22 points.
Roger de Sa’s Ajax remain on 16 points in 12th position.
In one other Premiership game on Sunday, University of Pretoria beat Mpumalanga Black Aces 1-0 at Loftus Versfeld, with Atusaye Nyondo scoring the winner for Tuks in the second minute.
@IndyCapeSport