JOHANNESBURG – Platinum Stars beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-0 in their Premiership match at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Two first-half strikes sealed the result for Stars, who collected a valuable three-pointer in the penultimate round of Premiership fixtures.
With the win, Stars move up one place on the table to 10th for a 34-point haul from 29 games.
Coming into the match, Cavin Johnson’s Stars side arguably had more to get out of the clash. At 11th on the table, Stars were four points off a top-eight spot – and that had closed to two at the conclusion of the match.
Chiefs, in contrast, were placed fifth and cannot finish lower than their current position with 47 points. The Amakhosi now can only finish as high as fourth, as they are a single point behind SuperSport United with one game remaining.
Chiefs were guilty of some poor defending as Solomon Mathe was allowed to pick his spot as he scored the opener in the 22nd minute for Stars.
Moments before the break, Stars doubled their lead through a well-taken chance by Enocent Mkhabela.
Enocent Mkhabela, who scored the opening goal for Platinum Stars, competes in the air with Kaizer Chiefs defender Erick Mathoho on Wednesday. Photo: Anton de Villiers, BackpagePix
Less than 10 minutes after the interval, Stars keeper Steven Hoffman was called in to action with an acrobatic save as Chiefs got their first shot on target of the encounter.
Hoffman continued to thwart the Chiefs attack as the match progressed to keep the Stars two-goal cushion intact.
There would be no further change in score-line as Stars held out for an important win over the Soweto giants, who suffered their sixth league defeat of the season.