Pretoria – Kaizer Chiefs continued their march towards the Premiership title with a hard-fought 1-0 win over a resilient University of Pretoria side at Tuks Stadium, in Pretoria.
Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the only goal of the match through a trademark wonder strike with 20 minutes remaining in the clash.
The win means the AmaKhosi moved to 60 points, and were just six points away from clinching league honours with four games remaining in their season.
For Tuks, the loss at home comes as a blow to their top eight ambitions as they remain in 10th spot on the log with 30 points with five games remain.
The home side began fast from the first whistle with a chance to open the scoring in the first 30 seconds. Thabo Mnyamane made his way into the area and from close range could not get proper contact as he made contact with his knee, but a touch by a Chiefs corner meant a corner followed. From the setpiece, Chiefs showed some nervy defending again as they failed to clear the ball, and Mnyamane had the final shot but this time was well-wide of target.
Just after the quarter hour mark, Chiefs displayed swift interplay in the midfield with both Reneilwe Letsholonyane releasing George Lebese in the area with just Tuks keeper Washington Arubi to beat, but the striker’s shot was scuffed across the face of goal.
Within a minute, the ball was played up to the other side of the field and Mnyamane again got a shot off but Chiefs keeper Reyaad Pieterse pulled off an instinctive save to keep the sides level.
In the 26th minute, Thabo Mosadi was denied by Pieterse as his toe-poke forced another reaction stop from the gloveman.
After the interval, in the 56th minute from the edge of the area, Lebese found space but his left-footed effort was pulled wide of goal.
Chiefs finally broke the deadlock in the 70th minute with the goal from Shabalala. From a free kick 25 metres out, the midfielder produced a curling strike which rocketed into the top right hand corner of goal to make it 1-0 to Chiefs.
Despite Tuks pushing hard for an equaliser as the game wore to a close, Chiefs were able to keep the hosts scoreless to wrestle a vital three points. – ANA