Ajax edge Cosmos 1-0
Ajax Cape Town edged Jomo Cosmos 1-0 in a hard fought game at the Athlone Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The Urban Warriors played with purpose and soon had Avril Phali in action when he had to make saves from Selolwane, Paulse and Davids.
Davids and Selowane worked well together in an Ajax midfield devoid of the talents of Shabalala and Ngobeni. These two combined well with the Ajax front runners as they kept the Cosmos defenders busy all night.
The Ajax players endured some tough tackles from the Cosmos team and they had a penalty appeal turned down when Paulse was brought down in the penalty area with a rough tackle from behind but the match official waved play-on.
Serero and Davids were at the forefront of the Ajax offensive with both players almost getting their names on the scoresheet.
Davids in particular came close twice, his first effort was tipped over the bar by the Cosmos keeper and his second came at the end of a great solo run through a maze of Cosmos players but Phali again made a fine save.
Cosmos players resorted to tough tackling as they tried to stem the Ajax attack resulting in number of yellow cards as their players were booked. Tshilo, Sono, Shitolo and Moloto of Cosmos all had their names in the referee’s book.
The Ajax offensive continued throughout the game and it came as no surprise when Dipsy Selolwane broke the deadlock in the 82nd minute of the game with a low drive into the opposite corner of the net.
The Cosmos keeper was the busier of the two keepers on the night and the winning margin could have been greater if Phali had not performed so well, earning him the Man of the Match award.
Cosmos fought back in the closing minutes but they could not breach the Ajax defence.
I was there at Athlone Stadium. Let us admit it it was a very good match The Urban warriors played very well. Lance is my man of the match although they gave it to Avril Phadi. Nathan is not in good shape guys yesterday he was useless. I am dissapointed with the way that our coach subsitutes players. He took out Diyo Sibisi instead of Nathan worse of all case Doutie the player that perfomed well. Come Coach. Good luck Urban Warriors in Cooetzenberg.