Systems' coach alarmed by referee's decisions
Larona Makhaiza | Tuesday December 9, 2025 10:07
The Alarm Boys are playing in the lower division following their relegation last season. They were hoping to recover from two consecutive defeats.
On Friday night, they played to a 1-1 draw with Prisons XI after the wardens solicited a goal towards the end of the game.
Systems had broken the deadlock in the game on the brink of halftime through Mphaphi Chinyepi who easily composed himself in the box and put it past the goalkeeper.
The Alarm Boys' lone strike was cancelled out by the in-form Edwin Nthoiwa with only 15 minutes left on the clock.
The game went on to end on a draw with both teams sharing a point. However, Botlhasitse expressed frustration on the standard of officiating in the league.
Shortly after the final whistle, Lefty approached the referees seeking clarity on some decisions. The referees were however escorted out by security guards before he could get anything out of them.
'When you put your whistle on the mouth, the interpretation is that you are seeing something that you could have blown for. But I think it's one of those things. She didn't want to listen to me,' the coach said.
Since the referees were escorted out by the security officials outside the field, in his defence Lefty said he was not wholly attacking the officials but wanted answers.
'She just walked away. So it was not an attack. We just wanted clarity of what was going on with some decisions,' he said.
Despite questioning some of the referee's decisions on the night, Botlhasitse berated his side's lack of composure towards the dying minutes of the game which resulted in the goal.
'A game of fine margins, if you could tell. We came into this game looking for maximum points. Hence you saw we got an early goal, But we failed to deal with just a simple ball that we could have dealt with much better.
'But it's one of those things where we are coming from two defeats and these things are bound to happen because the confidence is not yet there,' he said.
Meanwhile Prisons XI assistant coach Tatenda Mbikiwa said Prisons are on a tapestry to earn promotion.
'It's a very intensive league and there is still a long way to go. We cannot talk about promotion for now but we are ready psychologically and mentally. We are up to the task,' the coach boldly said.
Mbikiwa however highlighted that for his side to earn promotion, they must not have any room for mistakes at all.
'I think if we hadn't let them score, we would have got a goal. In the first minute of the attack, we got into the box. But we were not very alert and our aggression was lacking,' he said.
Systems 1 (Chinyepi 41st) Prisons XI 1 (Ntlhoiwa 75th)