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Pretoria - Second half goals from Atusaye Nyondo and Thabo Mosadi guided the University of Pretoria to a 2-0 win over Mpumalanga Black Aces in a Premiership clash at the Tuks Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday - their first in three games.
Tuks put a disappointing week behind them, after suffering consecutive defeats to Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in the space of three days, to topple their visitors from Witbank.
Nyondo and Mosadi combined for a successful 15 minutes in the second period, with each grabbing a goal and handing Tuks a morale-boosting last result of the year, as the Premiership comes to an end until January.
Tuks' Geofrey Massa tested Aces goalkeeper Bafana Nhlapo early in the game from a thunderous free-kick effort, before the Ugandan international pushed a header just wide of the upright shortly after.
Massa continued to make inroads at the back, and soon found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper, who made a good stop to deny the burly striker 24 minutes in.
Aces struggled to get hold of the ball, but had Clifford Mulenga in with a chance three minutes before the break, but his shot was blocked by a retreating defence, with Tuks doing enough to keep the scores level.
Having headed into the break goalless, Aces looked the brighter of the teams and forced Tuks shot-stopper Washington Arubi into making two saves in quick succession, as Themba Zwane and Onyekachi Okonkwo did well to get their shots on target.
But Tuks hit back when it counted when second-half replacement Thabo Mosadi broke through the Aces defence on the left flank, Tuks were in with a golden opportunity.
Mosadi danced his way past a host of Mpumalanga defenders, beat the goalkeeper and laid-off to Nyondo, who had a simple tap-in to put the home side ahead shortly after the hour mark.
It was all Tuks from there on out as Mosadi turned goal-scorer 10 minutes later to double AmaTuks' advantage.
Nyondo flicked on a header into the path of the youngster, who sprinted 50 metres with the ball at his feet, before slotting home expertly past Nhlapo to all but seal the three points.
Despite their two-goal cushion, hosts refused to let up and a host of saves from Nhlapo kept Aces' humiliation down to a respectable amount, when Tuks could easily have put three or four more away.
