(At Somhlolo National Stadium)
M. Highlanders......(0)1
Simiso 84th
M. Swallows............(0)0
LOBAMBA – Mbabane Highlanders have finally shattered a haunting, three-year curse.
For three agonising seasons, Mbabane Swallows had dictated the terms of this eternal rivalry. Yet yesterday, history was rewritten with a single, seismic stroke. Simiso Gumede’s 84th-minute strike did not merely break the deadlock; it shifted the tectonic plates of local football, delivering ultimate vindication for Highlanders’ President Shauwn Mkhize.
At the final whistle, the businesswoman turned football matriarch celebrated with unbridled joy, dancing alongside ecstatic players, officials and models adorned in the club’s iconic gold and black kit.
This 1-0 triumph over their fiercest adversaries propels the ‘Black Bull’ firmly into the top four, perched on 43 points. The lucrative E370 000 prize for a third-place finish is now within their crosshairs, provided they conquer their two remaining battlegrounds against Young Buffaloes and Rangers. Conversely, Swallows are left to pick through the wreckage of a season spent outside the top four.
Left with only Moneni Pirates and Sisonkhe to play, they can now only salvage a maximum consolation of E210 000 if they finished in the top four.
This is a derby that had long become a Swallows monopoly. Not since December 17, 2022, under the stewardship of Ally Kgomongwe, had the Bull tasted victory over the Birds. In the interim, Swallows had ruthlessly accumulated three wins and three draws, weaving a spell of dominance that only yesterday was emphatically broken.
Significantly, this marks the very first derby defeat for Swallows’ Head Coach Caleb Ngwenya. For Highlanders, operating under Mamkhize’s maiden season as President, a dramatic upgrade on last year’s dismal eighth-place finish beckons. For Swallows, the decline continues; since ascending to the league throne in the 2023/24 campaign, they have found themselves consistently locked out of the top five. The contest ignited like a house on fire, with Swallows commanding the opening stanza. Within five minutes, Nhlanhla Ngwenya found himself unmarked, deep within the penalty area, staring down the barrel of destiny. Yet, with the opening goal at his mercy, his powerful effort flashed agonisingly wide.
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