On Friday night, Bradley Grobler brought up a special milestone as he scored the winning goal in SuperSport United’s 2-0 victory over Maritzburg United.
Both teams made two changes to their line-ups, with Thamsanqa Gabuza and Jamie Webber starting for SuperSport, and Bonginkosi Makume and Karim Kimvuidi recalled for Maritzburg.
The Team of Choice set up deep in their own half and had the first real chance on nine minutes after Wayde Jooste unleashed a free-kick from range that was parried away by goalkeeper Ricardo Goss, who denied Kimvuidi on the rebound.
SuperSport looked more dangerous going forward, with Thapelo Maseko and Patrick Maswanganyi a handful for the Maritzburg defence. However, their final balls were not connecting with Grobler and Gabuza.
Gavin Hunt’s charges remained on the front foot and had a good chance just before the interval after Grobler went through on goal and was searching for the run of Gabuza on the blind-side, but left-back Bradley Cross made a crucial interception to deny the former Pirates striker a one-on-one with shot-stopper Renaldo Leaner.
Fadlu Davids’ men were more lively coming from the interval, especially Jooste down the left wing, and the visitors almost broke the deadlock on the hour-mark through a close-range header by Friday Samu that was smothered by Goss.
Hunt looked for solutions in attack from the bench five minutes later, bringing on Gamphani Lungu in place of Gabuza for a different approach. Lungu made an immediate impact for SuperSport with dangerous crosses in the area and Kegan Johannes broke the ice for the hosts four minutes later with a header after the Zambian winger’s corner caused all sorts of problems.
Grobler was awarded a penalty 11 minutes before time after Jooste shoved Maseko down in the box. Grobler saw his spot-kick saved by Leaner but he was able to volley home the rebound for his 100th goal in South African football and ninth of the current campaign.
Goss pulled off an acrobatic save in stoppage time to deny Amadou Soukouna a consolation goal for Maritzburg from a set-piece as SuperSport pulled five points clear in second position on the log.
