. Out of 12 Premier League sides that were in action over the weekend, six of them were dumped out of the knockout competition.
From the five, two are Gaborone giants, Township Rollers and Gaborone United (GU) who were initially seen as favourites for the competition. Rollers once again had an unpleasant trip to Orapa where they lost 2-1 to their hoodoo side, the Ostriches. In a space of few weeks, Rollers now lost twice against Orapa United following the arrival of Mogomotsi Mpote in Orapa. Interestingly, Mpote joined Orapa United following his release from Rollers. Despite drawing first blood through Mogakolodi Ngele on Saturday, Orapa United came back to send the Gaborone giants out of the competition.
Down South, Rollers’ city rivals, Gaborone United (GU) also crashed out at the hands of First Division side, Holy Ghost. The Reds took a 2-0 lead before Holy Ghost delivered an unforgettable comeback to take the match to penalty shootout. In shootout, Holy Ghost came tops with a 5-3 scoreline, much to the surprise of the football fraternity considering the current state of the two sides in the respective leagues. TAFIC on the other hand also lost on penalties to Union Flamengo Santos. Both Rollers and GU head coaches are now expected to face pressure from the supporters despite having only arrived at their respective sides recently.
Meanwhile, high riding Morupule Wanderers also got the shock when they went down to another lower division side, Notwane on Saturday. The home side managed to close down Wanderers in normal time, forcing the two sides to head straight to penalties. Notwane in the end managed to convert four penalties while Wanderers only managed to score one. Nico United also failed to progress to the next round after going down 6-5 on penalties against Jwaneng Galaxy. Galaxy join five other Premier League sides (Security Systems, Santos, VTM, Sua Flamingoes and Orapa United) in the next round of the competition. Systems advanced after edging BDF XI while Sua Flamingoes defeated Police XI 2-1 at Police College. VTM on the other hand edged out First Division side, Tshikinyega. The rest of the last 32 round fixtures are expected to be played this coming weekend.
