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Cape Town - Maritzburg United suffered their third loss of the Absa Premiership season after going down 1-0 to Polokwane City at the Harry Gwala Stadium on Tuesday night.
Maritzburg struggled to find their rhythm early on and gifted possession to the opposition with some poor passing and bad decision making in the middle of the park.
Polokwane took advantage of the home side’s sloppy play and had a good few chances in front of goal, but their finishing was not great.
In the tenth minute Thobani Mncwango beat a couple of defenders before seeing his powerful shot from the edge of the box brilliantly saved by the Maritzburg keeper.
In the 18th minute some bad defence inside the home side’s box saw the ball fall to an unmarked Rodney Ramagalela, but the Polokwane attacker poked his shot wide from close range.
Seven minutes later Virgil Vries produced another great save to keep Maritzburg in the game, this time denying Puleng Tlolane from 24-yards out.
On the half hour mark Maritzburg finally created their first chance in front of goal when Kurt Lentjies played a superb through ball for Evans Rusike, but he shot wide with just the keeper to beat.
Neither side could find the back of the net before the half time whistle.
The same trend continued into the second half until Polokwane substitute Sipho Jembula found the back of the net in the 67th minute with his first touch – a powerfully driven long range shot which bounced off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal, 1-0.
After going behind Maritzburg took control of the game, but they struggled to break down a well-organised Polokwane defence.
The home side did come close to scoring in the 85th minute when a corner from Kurt Lentjies was headed just over the target by Mohau Mokate.
The win for Polokwane is their second in the league and sees them up to eight points while the loss is Maritzburg is their third of the season and sees them on four points.
