Promotional playoff hopes for TTM

Following their 3-1 victory over Ubuntu Cape Town in their NFD League match at the Thohoyandou Stadium last Saturday, Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) enhanced their chances to partake in the promotional playoffs at the end of the season.

TTM jumped from the seventh to the fifth spot on the log, following the victory. With only four matches remaining before the activities for the current season come to an end, the Tshakhuma side are now eight points behind the pace setters, Stellenbosch FC.

A gap of four points exists between TTM and the second-placed Ajax Cape Town, and they are three points behind the third-placed team, Royal Eagles. TTM are tied with Mbombela United on 41 points.

The league champions will gain automatic promotion to the Absa Premiership Division while the second- and third-placed sides, together with the Absa Premiership team that will finish in the 15^th spot, will compete in the promotional playoffs. The best team in the promotional playoffs will also gain promotion to the elite league.

Witbank Spurs, who parted ways with the team’s head coach, Mr Ephraim Mashaba, two weeks ago, are languishing at the bottom of the log with 21 points. The other relegation candidates are Real Kings and Ubuntu Cape Town.

Phumelele “Ace” Bhengu of TTM was a marvel to watch in their game against Ubuntu. He scored a hat trick. It brings the number of goals Bhengu scored in TTM’s last two matches to 5. He scored a brace when his team beat Witbank Spurs 2-0 two weeks ago. A substitute, Cameron Chweu, scored the only goal for Ubuntu in the dying minutes of the game.

Date:12 April 2019

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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