Cape Town - Cape Town City snapped a five-game winless streak by fighting for a narrow 1-0 win over fellow relegation strugglers Baroka FC at Cape Town Stadium in the Absa Premiership on Sunday.
The win lifts City off the bottom of the table for the first time in months and, remarkably, takes them all the way up to 11th place above Polokwane City.
They are level on points with Polokwane City, Black Leopards and AmaZulu on 16 but move ahead of all of them because of their superior goal difference.
The Citizens began the match in front of their home crowd with the look of a team who had something to prove, which they certainly did.
Backed by their boisterous fans, the hosts were immediately on the front foot and generated a number of chances early on. However, they were inaccurate with their shooting and had just one shot on target out of nine in the first half, with Kermit Erasmus proving particularly wasteful.
It looked as if they might come to rue those wasted chances as Baroka began the second period like a completely different team. All of a sudden, City could not get their feet on the ball and the visitors began to wrack up a few chances of their own.
Unfortunately for the traveling fans, Baroka were just as poor in front of goal, if not worse, and ended the match with zero shots on target throughout the entire 90 minutes.
With all of the strikers on the pitch misfiring, it was left to Cape Town City captain Thami Mkhize to lead from the front and he did just that in the 66th minute.
At a corner, he out-lept everyone else to get his head on the ball and launch an unstoppable header into the top corner to give City the lead and, ultimately, what could be a vital the win come to the end of the season.