IT’S A TWO-HORSE RACE

MBABANE – Title pretenders separated from title challengers; wheat sifted from the grain and chumps winnowed from champs.

This best sums up Week 14 of the gruelling MTN league 2020/2021 first round E350 000 incentive title-run which has since snowballed into a two –horse race with security forces sides, Royal Leopard and Young Buffaloes set for the mother-of-all-battles. Pretenders Mbabane Swallows and Green Mamba faltered when it mattered the most yesterday, playing crippling 1-all draws with Tambankulu Callies and Manzini Sea Birds respectively to effectively rule themselves out of the race with a game remaining before the curtain falls on what has been one of the most entertaining opening stanza since MTN Eswatini started sponsoring the league competition in the 2002/2003 season.

As the league twists and turns; reviews and reversals took centre-stage yesterday, current log leaders Royal Leopard might have maintained their one point lead at the summit of the log with a 2-0 win over Milling Hotspurs at Tambankulu Stadium but army side Young Buffaloes broke many records than plates at the modest Prince of Wales Sports Ground. In annihilating a listless Tinyosi 8-0, ‘Amathole Ezinyathi’ not only kept the pressure on Leopard but most importantly they broke a long standing four-year-and-six-months highest league winning record held by Mbabane Swallows who flummoxed Red Lions 8-1 on November 9, 2016. Like Swallows striker Sandile Hlatshwako, who netted four goals on that memorable Wednesday night of November 9, 2016, Young Buffaloes towering striker Phiwa ‘Silwabelwabe’ Dlamini also snatched four goals to also go on top in the top-goal scorer’s chart with 12 goals – two goals ahead of controversially registered Mbabane Highlanders forward Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa.

Interestingly the two security forces – who last met on February 26, 2020 in a 1-all draw of the cancelled 2019/2020 season – will cross swords in a potential first round title decider at the iconic King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium on Wednesday. Kickoff time is 3:00pm. While much focus has been on the first round title run-in, a bruising battle has also ensued on the bottom rung of the log where Malanti Chiefs remain rooted at the foot of the table despite earning only their fifth point of the season. Tinyosi FC, battered and bruised after the 8-0 mauling as if they had spent the night sparring with boxer Mike Tyson at his prime, have been sucked into the relegation murky waters where they submerged together with Black Swallows, Tambankuklu Callies, who blew Swallows’ first round title hopes into smithereens, and Mhlume Peacemakers, who will all be fighting for the premiership lives in the next 16 matches in the gruelling and enthralling 2020/2021 MTN League.

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