Lapses in concentration cost victory for Blues
It was a thrilling affair when the Boksburg Blues played to a 2-2 draw against the Bedford Saints.
Ashley Amorim and Godwin Muzivandareva twice put the Boksburg Football Club in the lead in the first and second halves respectively, but the Bedford Saints levelled matters on both occasions, to peg back the hosts in an entertaining two-all draw.
The four-goal Easterns Premier League thriller unfolded at the Boksburg City Stadium on Saturday, May 9.
With both teams determined not to lose the early goal, the opening half of the first half was dominated by a midfield scuffle and saw little action in front of both goals.
As both outfits settled and the game opened up more, counter-attacking football became the order of the game and it was from a counter-attack that Boksburg’s moment arrived.
A Blues’ attack was adjudged to have been illegally halted by the referee at the edge of the Saints’ 18-area, and Amorim stepped up for the set-piece.
The midfielder brought the game to life with a right foot curler, which went over the Saints’ wall and into the back of the net, to send his side’s bench into a frenzy, 1-0.
Garth Cooley’s men began enjoying the lion’s share of possession following the goal, with their passing troubling the visitors, but they couldn’t take advantage as they took a slender lead into the half-time break.
Boksburg started where they had left off and, in the second stanza, they kept the ball away from the visitors.
But, with the Blues failing to extend their lead, the Saints began to threaten in search of the leveller, as the pendulum slowly swung their way.
Forward Paulo de Oliveira worried the Boksburg faithful with his brilliant solo run, which eliminated a few Boksburg bodies, before just having the goalkeeper to beat, but his shot, agonisingly, went wide of the upright.
Christian Blasa’s men kept up the pressure and it finally paid off as midfielder Vic Rebelo equalised from close range, 1-all.
The game then resembled a goal of the season competition for its last two goals, and first to score was Muzivandareva, who thought he had handed his side the win with a long-range screamer.
The end-to-end action continued, however, and it was the Saints’ James Gardiner who had the final say, with a long-range belter of his own, to settle the entertaining encounter as a stalemate. – @SabeloBoksburg
