Galaxy finish first round ahead in tight contest

Calistus Kolantsho | Wednesday November 26, 2014 15:41

 

Either Galaxy or Fighters had a chance to pull away last weekend, but failed after they drew 2-2 to tie on points with Santos. Galaxy has a superior goal difference of 15 ahead of Santos (nine) and Fighters (eight).

Santos beat Sharps 2-0 on Saturday as the First Division South race emerges as one of the tightest in recent seasons.

 Galaxy has scored 29 times and conceded 14 goals. Santos has scored 18 goals, conceded nine while Fighters banged the net 14 times while letting in six.

In other matches, Gantsi Terrors drew 2-2 with Rolling Boys while Lesirane City played a 1-1 draw with Killer Giants. The last match saw Prisons XI hammering Black Peril 2-0.  First Division South chairperson, Sam Keitireng told Mmegi Sport that the only match remaining in the first round is between Sharps and Terrors. He said the match would be played this Saturday in Gantsi. The game was postponed due to the unavailability of match officials. Keitireng said there are no referees to handle First Division matches in Gantsi and this affects their budget because they have to get match officials from Gaborone and other areas.

He said they want to improve the standard of football in the second tier, which is why they want to have qualified officials to handle matches.

“The main challenge that we experienced was the delay in the release of grants to clubs by the sponsor. That did not go down well with them. We had to convince them to start the league while waiting for the grants. It was expensive for them to train during the week and not play matches over the weekend,” he said.

Keitireng said the delay was caused by the committee’s request to have grants paid in a lump sum as opposed to instalments. “We wanted them to shift from giving clubs grants on quarterly basis.  The P12,500 was not enough,” he said. He said by making a once-off payment, clubs are able to benefit from the grants. He said the new arrangement took time to implement, which led to delays in the payments. The First Division League got a shot in the arm when it received a three-year P6 million sponsorship from Debswana Mining Company last year.