Mbombela – Bloemfontein Celtic's new coach Clinton Larsen started his second era at the club with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Mpumalanga Black Aces at the Mbombela Stadium in the Absa Premiership match.
A brace by Frank Mhango in the second half gave the visitors the final points they needed – and Larsen, the perfect start at Celtic.
The match was Larsen's first since he took over from Ernst Middendorp -who had been fired by the club on Sunday following their goalless draw against Moroka Swallows.
The two sides came to this fixture without a win in their previous matches – Aces had played to a thrilling 2-2 draw against Free Stars at home, while Celtic had played to a goalless draw against Swallows.
Aces mentor Clive Barker injected Lehlohonolo Nonyane and Roger da Costa, at the expense of Mzuvukile Tom and S'boniso Gumede who had been part of the team that drew against Stars.
Larsen made only one team change from the team that played a goalless draw against Swallows when Striker Lerato Lamula came in for Dumisani Zuma.
Despite the changes, the two sides didn't have the best of starts in the first half. Tshidiso Tukane threatened earlier on in the 14th minute, but his shot went over the cross bar.
A moment later, Aubrey Ngoma had Aces' best chance: he did well to beat a number of defenders, and keeper Patrick Tignyemb, but failed to hit the net.
That was the closest both teams came to scoring in the first half and the match went to the interval still goalless.
Celtic came back in the second half with more energy and could have opened the scoring as early as the 51st minute.
Lerato Lamola had the first chance in the second half to break the dead lock, but his shot was saved by Energy Murambadoro.
However, it was not long before the dead lock was broken and Mhango scored after being teed up by Thapelo Morena in the 57th minute to give his side a well-deserved lead.
The home side started to push more bodies forward in search for the equaliser but could not break the Celtic defence.
As they continued to search for the equaliser, they were caught on the counter attack and Mhango completed his brace in the 89th minute to make sure of the points.
The win saw Celtic move to 10th on the log standings with 20 points from 16 matches, while Aces remained eight with 21 points from the same number of games. – Sapa