Cape Town — Marumo Gallants lifted themselves off the bottom of the Premiership standings thanks to a goalless draw against AmaZulu at the Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane, on Wednesday.
The outcome was Gallants' seventh draw of the season, the most by any Premiership team after 11 rounds. Gallants moved from 16th to 15th and AmaZulu are in 8th position on the standings.
After a spritely start by visiting AmaZulu, the Limpopo-based side were content to absorb the pressure and then imposed themselves on the game from the 10th minute onwards.
The rest of the first half was played almost entirely in the AmaZulu half as Gallants' build-up play proved penetrative. They enjoyed so many final-third entries without creating real scoring opportunities. They scrambled seven shots at goal, five of which were on target.
In stark contrast, had a miserly two shots at goal, and none were on target on the back of 33% possession in the first half.
Veli Mothwa, the AmaZulu goalkeeper, was kept on his toes and cleared a host of threatening goalmouth crosses. His supporting defence also offered stout support and they cleared one AmaZulu shot off the goalline on the stroke of halftime when Gallants' pressure was at its fiercest.
The AmaZulu side was a pale shadow of the team that held Kaizer Chiefs to a goalless draw in last weekend's MTN8 semi-final. The team seemed flat and sat back most of the first half while Gallants made all the play.
In the second half, Gallants continued to rotate the ball and created space for attackers to run hard at the AmaZulu defence.
As the second half wore on, the game was crying out for a goal, but Gallants came closest and had a second attempt cleared off the goalline after goalkeeper Mothwa was caught out of position, 14 minutes from the end.
IOL Sport