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Cosmos flirt with relegation
27/04/2008 19:28 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Jomo Cosmos continued their dangerous flirtation with relegation after another goalless draw in their Premier League game against Golden Arrows at Orkney Stadium on Sunday afternoon extended their winless 11-match record for the year to an embarrassing nine draws and two defeats.
In the process of drawing nine of their last 10 games, Jomo Sono's team have amassed a mere two goals in 900 minutes of of largely dour football.
And, perhaps, best epitomising the decline of a club who boasted an intention to challenge strongly for the PSL Championship at the start of the season, was the sight of Sono looking clearly relieved, if not satisfied with Sunday's stalemate outcome.
It marginally improved Ezenkhosi's prospects of avoiding the "big drop" to the PSL's First Division next season, but still left Cosmos not safe from avoiding a promotion-relegation play-off in which the second-bottom team is involved - or indeed from finishing as wooden spoonists and going down automatically.
And, adding to Cosmos' indignity in a brutal game of some 35 infringements, was the sending off of Thabang Boria in the 75th minute for a kamikaze-like tackle that could have resulted in serious injury to his opponent and to himself.
Herculean performance
For all this, Cosmos were thwarted to a large extent in an arid Orkney by a Herculean performance from Arrows' goalkeeper Brendan Wardle, who produced a series of awesome saves from Dikgang Malebane and Sizwe Dlamini among others.
But it was Arrows who had possibly the easiest scoring opportunity of the game when Maurice Pequenino burst through the Cosmos' defence midway through the first half only to stumble and lose control with the goal at his mercy.
Arrows, nevertheless, went a long way to ensuring qualification for next season's Top Eight tournament with the point they gained from this frenetic draw - but the consensus in the Durban team's camp was that they had played "one of our worst games of the season."
- SAPA
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