‘BIRDS’ UNBEATEN RUN RUINED

LOBAMBA – Nothing lasts forever!

Remember the day. September 30, 2018. Like all good things coming to an end, Mbabane Swallows’ unbeaten league run, which began in earnest on May 15, 2016 stretching to 51-games, ended yesterday astonishingly when a sleek Green Mamba cruised to a 2-0 victory that provoked the kind of celebrations in the motley group of less than 3 000 fans this iconic venue has not witnessed in a long time. It took exactly 4 607 minutes of football for Swallows to be on the downtrodden path of defeat they have not tasted since Royal Leopard beat them 3-1 on May 15, 2016 – on the day of the police side’s league coronation.

It was the case of same player, same opponent. Former Swallows striker Musa Dlamini, who also scored the winner when the ‘Correctional Services’ side booted Swallows out of the SwaziBank Cup last 16 on the memorable Sunday afternoon of March 11, ending a 33-game unbeaten run in all competitions, paved the way for the red and white outfit’s first league defeat with a sublime finish in the 17th minute. Swallows midfielder Njabulo ‘D4D’ Ndlovu, who did not have the best of games, lost ball possession cheaply when Solomon Oledele dispossessed him and the Nigerian striker fed the ball to the ‘man of the match’, the twinkle-toed Njabulo Tfwala, who dispatched Musa Dlamini with a defence freezing pass.

The former Swallows sharp shooter, who now has five goals under his belt in four games, let fly a low shot which beat Swallows goalkeeper, Sandanezwe Mathabela hands down. Swallows paid dearly for an early miss exactly four minutes into the game when Wonder ‘Samba Jive’ Nhleko, unmarked from two yards out, inexplicably shot over the bar an inviting Kola Aledeonkum cross. Some grandmothers around the country would have converted blindfolded while leaning on their walking sticks awaiting the elderly grants.

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