Late goal gives Highlands Park win over Baroka

Cape Town - Highlands Park returned to winning ways with a 1-0 victory over Baroka FC at Makhulong Stadium on Saturday evening.

Highlands were enjoying more of the possession in the opening stages as expected being the home team and higher on the table.

Meanwhile, Bakgaga were content to sit back and break on the counter-attack whenever possible.

The game seemed to balance out as Dylan Kerr's side settled in to the game. However, both goalkeepers remained untested in the opening half an hour.

Remarkably, the first attempt on goal came in the 48th minute when Peter Shalulile hit a sweet half-volley on the turn which brought a fine save out of Baroka shot-stopper Ayanda Dlamini.

From the resulting corner, Lions of the North captain Bevan Fransman got on the end of the corner but could not get over the ball as his header went over the bar.

Bakgaga were guilty at times of overplaying it and seemed to be reluctant to shoot despite some promising build-up play.

In the 65th minute, Lindokuhle Mbatha delivered a decent cross in to the box from the left-hand side but Shalulile could only divert his header over the bar.

The home side took the lead five minutes later. A Ryan Rae long throw was headed on to the bar by Shalulile, with Fransman heading the rebound home.

There were no further clear cut scoring opportunities created as Highlands broke their poor run of form by closing out the tie and going home with all three points.

- TEAMTalk