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REFEREE WAS TOO ‘ROYAL’ - ALLY

18/09/2022 15:41:00 Chris Dlamini

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DURBAN – Out of the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup is Mbabane Highlanders and fingers point to the referee.

While admitting that they were beaten 2-0 by South Africa’s (SA) DStv Premiership side Royal AM on Friday afternoon, the capital city giants boss Chief Ally Kgomongwe and their Chef de Mission Johannes ‘Ace’ Siboza were all not impressed with the match officiating. “We played well in the tournament but we were just too lenient at home, where we had every chance to hammer them at least with a 2-0 win. Had we done that we would have come here with a much easier job.

understand

‘‘The referee was like South African, the way he handled the match. He was just too soft with our rivals and it didn’t help us,” Kgomongwe said. He said Royal AM won a lot of questionable fouls each time they were dispossessed which indeed also appeared to get under the over 100 travelling fans’ skin. “Our captain was right to talk to him in both halves because even the fans saw the decisions, such that even the first goal, he let the game proceed after goalkeeper Khanyakwezwe Shabalala had desperately cleared the ball that had seemingly gone over the goal line before the Royal AM fans reacted and he blew his whistle while pointing to the centre to signal a goal.

offside

“The second goal was scored from an offside position but it’s okay because in the end the reception here was also hostile,” Kgomongwe said. He complained that they were not received as well as Royal AM owner Shauwn ‘MaMkhize’ Mkhize was received in Eswatini when they came for the first leg a week ago. “It felt like the referee was from SAFA for us but it’s okay now we got the league and MoMo Cup to focus on now and we’ll be back in CAF next year as we still have Musa and Manyovu to unleash,” Kgomongwe said. Asked about striker Josef Lekata who fans felt should not have finished the match, Kgomongwe said the team was going to be fine but lacked competitive games for the players to gain momentum yet Royal AM was already into several league matches including the MTN 8.