NORTHERN Cape based Safa affiliate teams NC Professionals and Hungry Lions have both taken a commanding lead of their respective ABC Motsepe League streams as they enter the second phase of the season.
NC Pro’s are sitting at the top of the inland stream with 27 points from nine games played and won. They have a clear 12 points lead over rivals and league debutants Tsantsabane Stars who have amassed 15 points from 10 matches of which they bagged four wins, three draws and three losses.
NC Pro’s have prolific strikers in Sibusiso Dlamini (27) and Raymond Daniels (26). Dlamini has scored 10 goals in all their league matches while Daniels has scored eight times.
NC Pro’s manager Robert Sebastian chose his words carefully and predicted his side’s likely progress in the league this season: “We are most likely to take the championship title of our stream and make it to the championship play-offs for the combined league. At this point it looks as though that opponent might be Hungry Lions from the other stream,” he said.
The statistics for both teams tell the story of their rise in the league. To their credit Hungry Lions have scored 23 goals against all opponents and conceded a measly three. NC Pro’s for their part have scored 35 times against their opponents in nine league appointments.
Rasta Fa Eagles, the third Postmasburg-based team are holding up the bottom of the western (inland) stream with a mere two points to their name after eight official games.
Their counterparts in the same spot in the other stream (coastal) Kakamas Juventus are also way off the leading pack. Juventus have a mere eight points from nine engagements.
Veteran ABC Motsepe League campaigners United Rovers are somewhat at an unfamiliar position at third rung from bottom of the inland stream. The De Aar-based side have cooled off from their cup hunting forays.
The Karoo side have in two successive years missed the cut off for the Nedbank Cup competition. United Rovers have this season shown little of the edge that propelled them to three successive qualification rounds of the bank sponsored cup competition.
All safa matches are played at Covid-19 certified venues.
