Pressure back to haunt Letsoaka

Bloemfontein Celtic’s loss to Cape Town City on Wednesday night in the Telkom Knockout Cup competition has added more pressure on Coach Serame Letsoaka. The affable coach’s tenure at the club seems to be fast wearing thinner with every fixture compounding what has been a very undesirable start to the 2016/2017 premiership campaign.

Celtic got knocked out of the latter competition with a 2-0 loss to the newly formed Cape town side – formerly Mpumalanga Black Aces – courtesy of goals from 63rd minute substitute Sibusiso Masina and an own goal from Kabelo Mahlasela.

This once again put Letsoaka back into a very precarious position just after many had thought the club’s fortunes had changes with their 1-0 away win over Platinum Stars in the league last weekend. The latter win moved Celtic up to 12th on the premiership log standings, rendering Letsoaka essential breathing space.

Results have indeed been trickling in quite slowly for Letsoaka since taking over at Siwelele Park last season.

Considering that he himself trumped up expectations of the club contesting for the Premier Soccer League (PSL) title this season, it is not yet certain what the future hold for him should Celtic succumb to another defeat in their next league fixture against Chippa United in Port Elizabeth on October 25.

After the match ended with a 0-0 score line after regulation time on Wednesday night in the Mother City, things started going south for the travelling Siwelele side.

The visitors were reduced to 10 men after national under-23 defender Tshepo Rikhotso was sent off after collecting his second yellow card in extra time, opening the opportunity for the hosts City to capitalise on the player deficit.

Masina opened the score with a fine solo effort in the 115th minute to put the hosts 1-0 up.

Three minutes later the very same Masina caused more trouble for the Siwelele defence setting up Celtic defender Mahlasela to find the back of his own net. An unmarked and unthreatened Mahlasela clumsily rattled his own net after latching onto a through ball from Masina in the small box.