THANDA Royal Zulu slid to an uninspiring 2-1 loss to African Warriors at a cold, wet and windy Charles Mopeli Stadium on Saturday.
Barring a minor miracle, they also slipped out of contention for automatic promotion to the PSL as top team Golden Arrows widened the gap over the Amabhubesi to nine points with a 4-2 win over Royal Eagles.
Thanda and Arrows will meet at the uMhlathuze Stadium at 3pm on Wednesday and another defeat could even rule Thanda out of contention for a promotion play-off place.
As it stood after Saturday’s matches, Arrows were on 53 points, ahead of Jomo Cosmos 46, Cape Town All Stars 45, Thanda 44 and Black Leopards 44.
Cosmos, who played Maluti on Sunday, also had a game in hand.
Thanda’s loss in Saturday’s televised match was inexplicable.
They had a string of chances in the first half, twice having the ball in the back of the net with disallowed goals, and Michael Gumede having the agony of seeing his shot hit the inside of the post with a flying Ace Bhengu unable to finish matters.
Sloppy defence
To make matters worse, Warriors’ only visit to the Thanda goalmouth resulted in a poorly defended corner giving home skipper Lebahi an easy tap-in to make it 0-1 at the break – a score line that defied belief.
It took just five minutes after the restart for Gumede to even matters at 1-1, but parity was short-lived as another rare attack led to a second goal from a corner, Tshabalala making it 2-1 for Warriors.
Thanda were desperate to get the win – and it showed in their lack of composure as they sacrificed their normal calm passing style for route one football.
It wasn’t pretty to watch, and the defeat was bitter both for the players and their faithful fans.
Thanda need to make amends on Wednesday.
