Orlando Pirates ended their 14-year wait to be crowned Betway Premiership champions, securing the title after beating ORBIT College FC at a packed Mbombela Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Following three consecutive years of finishing second, Abdeslam Ouaddou’s charges officially sealed the championship on the last day of the season.
The Buccaneers went into the game still sitting second on the log behind Mamelodi Sundowns and they needed nothing less than a victory to end their long wait for the league title and they achieved that.
Two own goals from the hosts were enough to hand Pirates their 10th league title.
As expected, Pirates dominated possession and created a lot of goalscoring opportunities earlier on in the game, but were denied a goal by Sabelo Nkomo, who made some fine saves for ORBIT.
Nkomo was called into action as early as the ninth minute when he had to make a save from Thalente Mbatha’s stinging long range shot.
Nkomo was saved by the upright in the 17th minute when Relebohile Mofokeng took a first time shot towards goal following some good work from Nkosikhona Ndaba on the left side of the Pirates attack.
Five minute later, Nkomo did well to go down low to deny Mbatha from close range as the Buccaneers continued to ask questions on the ORBIT defence.
Tshepang Moremi wasted a glorious chance to put Pirates in the lead in the 34th minute after he was sent through on goal by Oswin Appollis. He tried to lob the ball over Nkomo, but ended up sending it over the crossbar.
ORBIT’s best chance of the half fell to Lethabo Modimoeng in the 44th minute from a corner kick, but his free header went agonisingly past the upright with Sipho Chaine seemingly beaten.
The Buccaneers were finally rewarded for their consistent pressure in the referee’s optional time of the first half albeit in bizarre circumstances. Nkomo, who was having a good game in goal, tried to come out of his area to clear a corner kick from Moremi, but ended up fisting the ball into his own net for an own goal.
As if the first one was not enough, ORBIT were to score another own goal just four minutes into the second half when Ndumiso Ngiba, who is on loan at the club from Pirates, put the ball into his own net to double his mother club’s lead.
ORBIT coach Pogiso Makhoye made five changes just before the hour mark in an effort to change the complexion of the game, but the damage was already done.
Pirates went on to win the match and clinch the Betway Premiership title, and ORBIT were relegated to the Motsepe Foundation after Magesi FC beat Richards Bay to move away from the bottom of the log. Magesi will now try to save their Premiership status via the promotion/relegation playoffs against Cape Town City and Milford FC.
