DURBAN – Lamontville Golden Arrows reign were crowned KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Premier's Cup champions on Sunday after defeating Real Kings at King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi.
Abafana Bes'thende dispatched the National First Division outfit 2-0 in the final in Umlazi to win the trophy for the second time, with their first and last triumph coming in 2011.
There were more positives than negatives for Steve Komphela and his troops as they scored five goals while keeping two clean sheets in their two matches in the competitions.
Arrows started the game on the front foot as they dominated the early exchanges. They were penetrating through the wings, using their full-backs to overload the spaces in wide areas.
Romario Dlamini delivered a quality cross in the first five minutes from the right-hand side, but Richard Matloga failed to connect with his head. Malcolm Jacobs between the sticks for Real Kings was able to make a comfortable save from the cross.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/KZNPremiersCupFinal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KZNPremiersCupFinalagainst @real_kingsfc pic.twitter.com/EKkXp7Qukn
— Lamontville Golden Arrows FC (@goldenarrowsfc1)
A few minutes later, Nduduzo Sibiya threatened again, but his attempt went wide. He profited from a lovely cut back from Zolani Nkombelo on the left-hand side. Abafana Bes'thende were unlucky to be denied after 15 minutes as a well worked move that was instigated by Sibiya was judged to be offside.
It was flowing move that deserved a goal, but Dlamini was penalised for being in an offside position.
Kings were happy to just sit back and absorb the pressure with the intention of catching Arrows on the counter-attack.
Sphiwe Mbatha then fluffed a glorious opportunity to put his side in the lead on 28 minutes. Instead of going for broke with acres of space in front of him, he opted to play a square ball.
Kings were growing in confidence and were creating half chances, but poor execution was letting them down. Both teams were into the interval deadlocked at 0-0.
Kings looked lacklustre, but it wasn't surprising. They were playing their third game of football in two days, and second of the day. Their sense of urgency was nowhere to be seen in their play.
Arrows continued to pile pressure, but Jacobs stood his ground for Kings between the sticks. He produced another fantastic save a few minutes after the interval to deny Sibiya from an acute angle.
Dlamini missed a sitter with his head in the 54th minutes after he was well spotted by Siphamandla Sabelo.
Three minutes later, however, Dlamini wasn't to be denied. He broke the deadlock with a scorcher from the right-hand side.
It was Arrows who were asking all the questions and they were finally rewarded for their persistency.
Michael Gumede killed the game off in the 67th minutes when he netted the second goal. Sibiya released Sabelo with an accurate pass on the left-hand side and then he laid the ball in to the path of Gumede who scored to make it 2-0.