Cape Town – Ajax Cape Town held off a spirited late fightback from Platinum Stars to record a 2-1 Premieship win at the Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night.
The win enabled the Cape side to move to second position in the standings, eight points behind Kaizer Chiefs, who drew 1-1 with Moroka Swallows.
Ajax had the better of the early play, forcing Dikwena to do a lot of defending in their own box in the initial stages of the game through a succession of crosses and balls into the box.
And after a couple of half chances for Franklin Cale, the Urban Warriors drew first blood on 15 minutes when Cecil Lolo fired in a left-footed shot from 20-yards out that wrong-footed Stars keeper Kabelo Dambe before hitting the back of the net.
The visiting side were unable to muster much of a fight-back, barely testing Ajax keeper Anssi Jaakkola as too often their attacks broke down around the edge of the Urban Warriors' box.
Instead it was Roger De Sa's men who were to take a two goal lead on 27 minutes when Cale picked out Tashreeq Morris with a perfectly flighted free kick, giving the striker an easy finish from five yards out.
After the restart, the two sides found themselves evenly balanced, with both teams struggling to find any kind of fluency or rhythm in their games.
Stars had the first chance of the second half, waiting until the 67th minute before testing Jaakkola as Letladi Madubanya let rip from the edge of the area, Ajax's Finish goalkeeper making an outstanding reaction save.
To their credit, the visitors refused to give up, and they were back in the game with 10 minutes to play when Ajax defender Rivaldo Coetzee deflected a cross into his own net.
The goal spurred Stars back into life, with the Cape side having to do some desperate defending to make sure that all three points stayed in Cape Town. – Sapa