8 December 2008

Igesund praises his players

Coach Gordon Igesund was full of praise for the manner in which side heroically fought back to earn a point from their game against Free State Stars.

It was certainly a fantastic effort from his side, who were up against a partisan crowd and r\temperatures of 30 degree Celsius at the Goble Park Stadium.

And to make the result, which ensures a five point cushion between United and the teams scrapping t out at the bottom of the log, even more credible, is the fact that the Team had a player sent off and also had to endure some debatable refereeing decisions.

“What we did out there after going down to 10 men was absolutely outstanding,” Igesund said. “We defended with three players only, went man-to-man and risked everything. Brice [Aka] ran his socks off, and Elias Ngwepe, Bageta Dikilu (pictured above), Peter Petersen and Sylla Mbemba were outstanding in defence. Tony Tsabedze ran until he was on his knees.”

"We had a penalty appeal, it may have been ball to hand, but the referee never even considered it, he never even looked at his linesman. But at the end of the day I have to compliment my tea, I think they worked their socks off and I think that we were unlucky not to win the game”

Maritzburg have now been on the receiving end of a couple of questionable match official decisions - another one that springs to mind was the legitimate goal disallowed against Arrows.

However, the team has continued to work hard in order to grind out results, often having to dig deep into their reserves to come back from a goal down or score late in the game themselves.

.