Two seasons after hitting iceberg, Notwane sinks
Mqondisi Dube | Friday June 12, 2015 11:34
The Notwane captains stood hapless as the sinking moment funereally approached. Devastating.
A team that brutally dominated the local scene in the mid 1990s stuttered into the Serowe Sports Complex punch drunk even before the contest begun.
The prospect of facing Premier League’s lightweights, FC Satmos was too heavy to ponder.
During Paul Moyo’s era, a date against Satmos was akin to climbing a molehill, but nearly two decades later, it had morphed into a mountainous task.
Notwane back then relied on the sheer brilliance of its gritty stars, a class that feared no opponent. But almost 20years later, Notwane desperately clung on to its Premier League status, thanks to boardroom decisions or the benevolence of other clubs forgetting to pay their subscription fee.
It was evident the Toronto venom had long been removed.
Water had found its way into what was now a porous vessel and there was no sign of life in this former gargantuan ship.
With the Botswana Football Association (BFA) expected to come down hard on the club for taking a football matter to court, the Notwane ship might conclusively reach the base of the sea in no time.
The club is in real danger of becoming a sea museum or a hapless playground for all sea creatures.
However, the club will find scant solace in that today’s giants, Gaborone United and Township Rollers, have walked a similar path before and bounced back.
However, on the glum side, there are chilling tales of clubs gone and forgotten with Black Peril quickly coming into the minds of fans who saw it all in the 1990s. Once upon a time there was a club in Francistown, TASC that prowled the Premier League landscape.
The club is now fighting relegation in the lowliest of the leagues.
Notwane precariously pulled a last minute Houdini Act in 2013 when the BFA breathed life into a comatose Toronto after some clubs failed to pay affiliation fee. Notwane had been relegated only to bounce back due to a technicality, in a similar fashion in cricket where a batsman is dismissed only to earn reprieve through a no ball.
This season, Notwane, like in the past horrendous seasons, never got going and was always dicing with death. A mini-revival after the festive season break had given Sechaba fans hope. At one stage, the team rose to 11th, a poor position by any standard but a dust of gold for a stuttering Notwane. But the lost cause was not to be retrieved. The team managed 31points all season, at an average of just above one point every game.
Then, the arrival of Zambian, Zebron Njobvu in January appeared to galvanise a depressing campaign.
The stocky striker blasted five goals in six games to send Notwane fans into delirious dreamland.
At that moment, Notwane rolled back the hands of time with a sparkling 1-0 win over then log leaders, Township Rollers in January. However, the moment Njobvu began his goal drought, the season long nightmare bounced back. Signs were ominous and Notwane’s judgement day was inching closer and closer, like a lion stalking its prey.
The end of season demons had returned with their undisguised familiar ghoulish grins.
Notwane were back sailing in shark-infested waters, which also harboured the ever-present threat of the underlying icebergs.
Desperately needing a win against Satmos on the last day of the season, Notwane made a hush of it and lost 2-1. With Satmos gaining three soft points, a relegation decider was ordered.
But a panic-stricken Notwane raced to the High Court arguing it had been unjustly treated and wanted the relegation play-off scrapped. But there was no reprieve in court as their bid flopped and the team had to return to the pitch where football is supposed to be played with tails between the legs.
It was a defining, history-making moment in Serowe. After racing to a 2-0 lead at halftime, a measured air of optimism swept across for Notwane fans.
But Satmos rallied back and equalised with the last kick of the match.
In extra time, the Selebi-Phikwe side turned the screws and while ensuring its own survival, sent a giant of local football into an abyss.
Notwane would always look back at the rate at which cash rich rivals raided their ‘farm’ for the finest talent.
They are only left pondering what could have been, had Dirang and Pontsho Moloi, Galabgwe Moyana, Botlhe Moralo, Keoagetse ‘Barnes’ Radipotsane, Mpoeleng ‘Stopper’ Mpoeleng, Kenamile Mani, Agisanyang Raamabya, Mompoloki ‘Wrist’ Sephekolo and Isaac Paeye, among others, been retained.
Notwane’s parlous state was played out when out of desperation, the club allowed a virtually anonymous businessman, Gift Mogapi to take charge of what is largely regarded as a Botswana football institution.
It was an undisputed confirmation of how “the mighty had fallen.”