Swallows, Stellies share the spoils

Swallows FC (1) 1 Gamildien 43 Stellenbosch FC (1) 1 Van Rooyen 45

A GOAL blitz shortly before halftime set up yesterday’s intriguing Premiership encounter at Dobsonville Stadium, but ultimately Swallows and Stellenbosch had to settle for a share of the points.

An elementary error by the Stellies defence saw the ball bobble towards Tebogo Langerman on the Swallows left flank.

The former Mamelodi Sundowns veteran picked up the loose ball and made his way down the byline before playing it across the face of the Stellenbosch goal to find an unmarked Ruzaigh Gamildien.

The Swallows marksman needed no second invitation and coolly slotted the ball past Sage Stephens, who was in goal due to Stellenbosch captain and regular goalkeeper Lee Langeveldt being ruled out with a knee injury.

The Dube Birds can, though, count their blessings that Gamildien was actually still on the field after he had committed a horrendous foul within the first three minutes of the game when he went straight through Dean van Rooyen on the touch line.

Gamildien escaped with just a caution from referee Eugene Mdluli.

Van Rooyen, fortunately for Stellenbosch, did not suffer any injury from Gamildien’s tackle and it was the pacy midfielder who equalised on the stroke of half-time, just two minutes after the visitors had gone behind.

It was a silky move by coach Steve Barker’s team, with striker Judas Moseamedi showing great awareness by playing a first-time ball to Stanley Dimgba.

The Nigerian then displayed great individual skill to leave his marker floored, which opened up the space for Dimgba to find Van Rooyen, who finished coolly to level up the game.

Swallows had an opportunity to claim all three points late in the second half when Kagiso Malinga unleashed a pile-driver from outside the box, but Stephens was up to the task as he pulled off a brilliant onehanded save.

The draw was enough to maintain Stellenbosch’s unbeaten start to the season as they moved up to third position on the Premiership standings, while Swallows coach Brandon Truter would have hoped that his team could get more from the match in his return to the bench from a two-week absence.

Swallows did move up to 13th position, but have still won just one league game all season.