Arrows romp to record success

Richard Henyekane grabbed a first half hat-trick – which took his tally to 14 goals and saw him leapfrog Mabhuti Khenyeza at the head of the scorers’ chart – while Philani Shange, Tshepo Mashego and Bheka Phakathi also found the back of the net in the rout that propelled Abafana Bes’thende up to fifth on the table. Stars drop down to 12th.

Henyekane made an immediate impact on his return to the starting line-up, opening the scoring in the 12th minute. A long ball out of defence saw Thokozani Mshengu show some great control before laying off a defence-splitting pass that allowed the speedy striker to stroke the ball past Tapuwa Kapini in the Stars goal.

On 36 minutes, Abafana Bes’thende hit Stars with a typical quick counter attack that resulted in a controversial second goal. Henyekane was put through and unselfishly played the ball across to Shange to shoot on goal, with Kapini having been drawn off his line. The attacking midfielder, with only a retreating defender to beat, fired the ball onto the underside of the crossbar before it bounced away to safety.

Referee Daniel Bennett initially waved play on before conversing with his assistant on the touchline, who gave him the go ahead to award the goal. Television replays suggested that it was an incorrect decision, and Stars, quite rightly, felt hard done by to be 2-0 down.

Things got even worse for the hosts just before half time when Henyekane scored twice within the space of a couple of minutes. First, he stole the ball from Kapini before firing a shot between the legs of Mofokeng on the goal line to make it 3-0, and he then took advantage of some pathetic marking to complete a remarkable hat-trick and put his side four goals up at the break.

Stars went on the attack early in the second half, with coach Miguel Gamondi sending on Henrico Botes and Thabiso Monareng for Joel Luphahla and Oscar Ntwagae within seven minutes of the restart, but it didn’t stop Arrows scoring a fifth just before the hour mark.

A lovely passing move saw Henyekane turn provider, as he slipped a pass to his right for Mashego to fire home a low shot from just inside the penalty area. Once again the marking from Stars’ central defenders left a lot to be desired.

The home side, as if they weren’t suffering enough, were reduced to ten men with just under 20 minutes to play when Mofokeng picked up his second yellow card of the night.

With Mofokeng dismissed and Ntwagae substituted, it left Stars without any central defenders on the pitch. Arrows took advantage of the hosts’ depleted backline late in the game when Phakathi scored an absolute beauty to add to the already emphatic score line.

Courtesy of Backpagepix