KZN Inland A left with “must win” matches says coach
The KZN Inland u18A side has found the going much harder over the opening two days of this year’s SASHOC National Weekthan last year’s event, which was also hosted in Bloemfontein at the University of Free State.
On Monday, they played to a 2-2 draw against their arch-rivals, KZN Coastal A. The draw followed a shock 1-2 defeat against a gritty Northern Gauteng team on the opening day.
In that clash, Tino Hove scored to give the Inland team the lead. His goal was, however, cancelled out by set piece strikes from Northerns’ skipper Zac Richardson, and Luken Brunette.
KZN Inland, captained by Hilton College’s Jarred Kitto, is focussed on bagging points from wins in Pool B, which is proving to be much tighter than many had predicted.
Coastal A, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Southern Free State A on Sunday, are also chasing a first victory.
The game started slowly, but KZN Coastal dominated possession in the early going as Andre Strydom, Matthew De Oliveira, and Lumi Matwele controlled the midfield.
Discipline was an issue in the second chukka, with players from both teams being shown their marching orders.
Inland’s Dane Jackson picked up a yellow card after a poor tackle on a Coastal player, before Coastal’s Josh Beck headed to the naughty seat after receiving a green card late in the chukka.
Coach Cameron Mackay’s Coastal side did, however, open the scoring soon after that when De Oliveira netted to give his side a slender 1-0 lead at halftime.
In the third stanza, Inland momentarily changed the momentum of the match. After surviving a few waves of attack, coach Damian Kimfley’s team scored twice in quick succession through Julian Koningkramer and Banele Dlamini.
Koningkramer’s goal came from smart interlinking play from Dlamini on the left-hand touchline. After a darting run, the speedster entered the circle and played the ball across to Koningkramer, who, with space and time on his side, calmly slotted the opportunity to level the scores.
Soon after that, good vision from the Inland side saw them move the ball quickly up to the strikers and Dlamini was in on goal. He didn’t miss and put his side 2-1 ahead.
They held onto that lead for most of the fourth chukka, but, with five minutes remaining, Coastal struck again, this time, via a short corner. Trent Jessop made it count when it mattered the most and executed a drag flick to perfection to make it 2-2.
After the match, coach Kimfley told SuperSport Schools Plus his charges had performed better than they did on Sunday: “I think we were better in terms of energy and how we pressed.
“We spent a lot of time on video analysis last night. We had about three video sessions, one last night, and two this morning, to get the guys in a better place, and I think they all fulfilled their roles today.
“We were 2-1 up for large parts of the final moments, and we just let it slip at the end. We will take the point and move on.”
With two days of round-robin action remaining, Pool B is still wide open, and KZN Inland will need to win all of their remaining matches to sneak into the top end of the playoffs.
Kimfley said that’s a pressure that he and his coaching team relish. “We enjoy the pressure. The boys do, too,” he reckoned.
“Today, I put a lot of pressure on them to perform, because we lost yesterday, and we needed to get the win. The boys stepped up, and that was good to see.
“They know we have to win the next three games. Our backs are against the wall, but we will come out fighting. We’ll do our video prep, as normal, and hold the boys accountable for their performances,” he concluded.
Inland will be back in action on Tuesday when they take on Eastern Province A at 12:45.
Day four will see them play a doubleheader against Southern Gauteng A and Southern Free State A. All of the action will be LIVE on SuperSport Schools.
Scorers
KZN Coastal A 2 (1): Matthew de Oliveira, Trent Jessop. KZN Inland A 2 (0): Julian Koningkramer, Banele Dlamini.
