Ajax Cape Town only had themselves to blame as they allowed Orlando Pirates to do the league double over them with a 2-1 victory on Wednesday night.
Roger de Sa’s Ajax side had a terrible start to the Absa Premiership match at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto as they lost key striker Nathan Paulse to a hand injury after an awkward fall, and then further disaster struck when they conceded an own goal in the 20th minute.
Defender Rivaldo Coetzee passed the ball back to goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola, who somehow didn’t manage to trap the ball and it went under his foot into the net to give the Buccaneers the lead.
The absence of Paulse robbed the Capetonians of a target man who could trouble the Pirates defence, but they held out until halftime without further damage.
Soon after the break, though, Pirates struck once more as classy midfielder Thamsanqa Gabuza won the ball from an attempted clearance by Ajax’s Ghanaian defender Lawrence Lartey down the left and then set up Sifiso Myeni, who easily beat Jaakkola for an excellent second goal in the 48th minute.
But the Urban Warriors never gave up, and they were rewarded for their efforts when Prince Nxumalo – who had replaced the injured Paulse – took full advantage of a defensive error by Pirates’ Edwin Gyimah’s failure to clear the danger saw Nxumalo sneak in behind him to slot the ball past goalkeeper Brighton Mhlongo.
De Sa’s outfit pushed hard for the equaliser, and they almost pulled it off with two minutes to go when Man-of-the-Match Nxumalo’s brilliant header flew towards the Pirates goal, only to be denied by the crossbar.
The result meant that Eric Tinkler’s Pirates leapfrog Ajax on the Premiership log, moving up to 12th place on 20 points from 16 games, while the Cape side drop down to 13th position on 19.
In other matches on Wednesday night, top-five teams Wits and Platinum Stars couldn’t gain an edge on each other in a 1-1 finish in Johannesburg, so they will remain in third and fifth respectively.
Polokwane City powered past Maritzburg United 3-1 in Limpopo, which sees them shift up to 11th on the standings. Neighbours Free State Stars and Bloemfontein Celtic picked up a point each, with Stars drawing 2-2 with the University of Pretoria at the Tuks Stadium, while Celtic had a 1-1 stalemate with SuperSport United at home.
@IndyCapeSport
Premiership Results
Orlando Pirates 2 Ajax Cape Town 1, Wits 1 Platinum Stars 1, University of Pretoria 2 Free State Stars 2, Polokwane City 3 Maritzburg United 1, Bloemfontein Celtic 1 SuperSport United 1.