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Pietermaritzburg - Maritzburg United came back from two goals down and a man less to secure a 2-2 draw with Golden Arrows on Friday night in PSL action at Harry Gwala Stadium.
High-profile signing Kagisho Dikgacoi fired the visitors in front with a composed 18th-minute effort coming on his second debut for the club, before Musa Bilankulu doubled the advantage after an error in the 37th minute.
Evans Rusike’s thunderbolt halved the deficit a minute before the break to give the Team of Choice hope.
Those hopes were dashed though when Brian Onyango was red-carded on the hour, before Kurt Lentjies netted his third goal of the season to rescue a point.
The hosts made a cracking start to this Premiership contest and should have led after 10 minutes when Rusike’s timid strike was acrobatically turned over by Maxamilian Mbaeva.
Arrows then went ahead when Dikgacoi played a neat one-two with Vuyani Ntanga, whose return pass was calmly driven in.
After Cliffton Miheso forced Virgil Vries to tip over, Bilankulu doubled the advantage when the United goalkeeper spilled a routine cross and allowed the midfielder to tap-in.
But the hosts gave themselves hope when Rusike showed confidence on the edge of the box, took on his marker and powered in an unstoppable 20-yard finish.
The hosts looked far stronger after the break, but suffered a blow when Onyango was dismissed just before the hour mark.
However, that did not deter them from pouring forward in search of an equaliser.
They got their reward 17 minutes from time as Kwanda Mngonyama’s weak shot somehow managed to trickle through to an unmarked Lentjies at the back post – the United captain doing the honours with a tap-in.
The result put Abafana Bes’thende top of the table with 14 points, while Maritzburg jumped one place to 11th.
