Oswin Appollis rose from the bench to fire Orlando Pirates to a 1-0 victory over Siwelele FC in a Betway Premiership match at the Free State Stadium on Tuesday night.
After being introduced at the start of the second half for Patrick Maswanganyi, Appollis struck with 10 minutes to go to hand the Buccaneers maximum points on the road. As a result, Pirates have now gone for four successive wins in the league and eight games unbeaten across all competitions.
Buccaneers coach Abdeslam Ouaddou made two changes from the team that started against Lioli FC in a CAF Champions League match this past weekend at the same venue. Kamogelo Sebelebele came in for Appollis, while Maswanganyi stepped in for Sipho Mbule.
The hosts were without suspended Samir Nurkovic, and coach Lehlohonolo Seema benched Christian Saile in favour of Vincent Pule, while Kaizer Chiefs loanees Happy Mashiane and Samkelo Zwane started from the bench.
Relebohile Mofokeng almost thrust the Buccaneers ahead seven minutes into the match but could not direct into goal a feed from Deon Hotto. Siwelele came close on the stroke of halftime, but Pule failed to punish Lebone Seema, whose miscued clearance had fallen into his path, but a weak shot was no trouble for Sipho Chaine in goals for Pirates.
Mofokeng was back again to try Siwelele goalkeeper Ricardo Goss, but his low turn-and-shoot went just wide 11 minutes after the restart. Pirates finally got a breakthrough when Appollis beat Goss when the contest seemed headed for a goalless draw.
The home side immediately tried to hit back through substitute Saile, but his headed effort was saved by Chaine.
PIRATES CLOSE GAP ON LEADERS SEKHUKHUNE UNITED
The Buccaneers now have seven points fewer than log leaders Sekhukhune United, but the Soweto giants have a game in hand. They are six points behind second-placed Mamelodi Sundowns, who have played two games more than them, and closed the gap between them and Kaizer Chiefs to just a point.
After Tuesday’s match, Siwelele dropped to position 15 on the table with four points, the same as bottom-placed Chippa United, who have an inferior goal-difference.
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