BLOEMFONTEIN - African Warriors’ veteran anchor-midfielder Kabelo “Chenene” Fuma’s penalty spot was enough to seal his team a place in this year’s Safa ABC Motsepe League national promotion playoffs.
The workaholic player converted the spot kick in the second stanza of a match to eliminate Mangaung City in a fixture that decided the Free State’s ABC Motsepe League champion.
The fixture was played at the CUT Stadium in Bloemfontein on Sunday. The victory saw the Warriors renew their ambition to regain professional status. The Qwaqwa-based outfit reached, and the Bloemfontein side qualified for the provincial play-off by finishing top of their respective streams, A and B of the ABC Motsepe League.
Warriors finished steam A with 37 points, beating D' General FC and Mangaung Unite to the finishing pole of the race. The latter teams finished in second and third position, respectively.
City won Stream B with 28 points, with Remember Elite Soccer Academy (Resa) and Kovsies FC ending in second and third place, respectively. The teams played 16 matches.
The finale was not as entertaining as football fanatics in the Free State had hoped to witness. Both teams’ approach was similar, playing high balls, trying to catch each other on the second balls, and quick breaks. They lacked the creativity to display a championship pedigree. Their approach saw them going into the first half break goalless.
Warriors were awarded a penalty early in the second half after City’s defender was judged to have handled the ball in the box. Fuma converted with ease, sending the keeper the wrong way, and this was followed by some celebration.
City came strong searching for an equalizer, but the Warriors’ defence was equal to the task. A final whistle from the referee confirmed Warriors as the champion after the 90+ minutes, winning the game by 1-0.
Jubilations with mixed emotion were all over with Warriors securing a national play-offs ticket for the second time since its inception. They gained promotion to the National First Division (NFD) after winning the second division play-offs which were held in Charles Mopeli stadium in 2007.
The Free State champions will represent the province in the forthcoming Safa ABC Motsepe national play-off to be staged in mid-June in the Free State.
Surely, the hosting rights might play a slight motivation to the provincial champions as they would not be strangers to any venue which will be used for the play-off.
This year's play-off is expected to produce three teams to the National First Division (NFD) to close a gap left by Royal AM whose membership was terminated by the premier soccer league.
However, it is yet to be announced by Safa as to what criteria will be used to promote the third teams from the culture of promoting the two finalists.
Jonny "Raps" Mafereka, the Warriors head coach said winning the provincial championships was a big achievement for the club but winning promotion to NFD will surely complete the journey.
"The boys have worked hard showing resilience and unity. We have a group of soldiers who are willing to die for the team and that makes our job easy. The technical team and the players have worked hard to achieve this and we have to make sure that we continue fighting," he said.
Mafereka's experience will be key in helping the team to get a promotion as this would not be his first time in the national play-offs.
He won the league with Dikwena FC in 2021 and guided them to the play-offs where they failed to get promotion.
