MADINDA Ndlovu watched the Mascom Top 8 silverware slip away as his side Township Rollers fell 1-2 to boyhood friend Rahman Gumbo-coached Gaborone United (GU) in the final at the National Stadium on Saturday night.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
GU grabbed the P1 million silverware which was last year won by BDF XI after upstaging Rollers 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 stalemate in regulation time.
Gumbo’s boys came back from behind to score two goals through Ntesang Simanyana and Benson Shilongo cancelling out Rollers’ Kobamelo Kebaikanye goal to lift the silverware.
GU will now represent Botswana in next year’s Caf Confederation Cup after the winning the country’s biggest cup tournament. Champions Rollers, fresh from exiting the Caf Champions League losing to South Africa’s Kaizer Chiefs, are grappling with the imminent prospect of losing the Botswana be Mobile Premier Soccer League as they trail Mochudi Centre Chiefs by eight points with four matches remaining before the end of the season.
Centre Chiefs lead the pack in the Botswana league with 60 points with Ndlovu’s Rollers on 52 points with four games to go. Ndlovu won the championship two times with Centre Chiefs in the 2011-2012 and 2012-13 seasons before nicking it for the third consecutive time with Rollers in 2013-14.
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He is eyeing to make history in Botswana if by any chance he displaces Centre Chiefs to win the championship for a record four times in a row, better still in a foreign land. Gumbo’s GU are on the fourth spot with 45 points behind Orapa United who have accumulated 51 points. Rollers’ league game against Orapa was postponed to make way for the Mascom Top 8 final.