Moretele Gunners salvages top five finish

By Tebogo Senosha

Hammanskraal-based side Moretele Gunners finished fourth in the ABC Motsepe North West League for the 2016/17 season after suffering a 3-1 defeat to Phatsima All Star in their last match of the season recently.

Gunners started the season on a rather bad foot after being dumped out of the Nedbank Cup qualification by Palmaros FC which meant they could set sights on the league only.

Gunners manager, Mr. Elias "Papas" Tlhatlha said that the 2016/17 season was a bad one for them because they really wanted to go to the promotions and he felt like they had strong and capable players to achieve that feat.

"This is one of the seasons I just want to forget. It was a very poor one for us as a team," said Tlhatlha.

Tlhatlha also hinted that the league had not being entirely fair on them hence they finished fourth and could not achieve their goal of going to the promotions.

"There are many things that happened within the structures of the league that hindered our progress. Things I cannot divulge in the media for my team's sake. So to avoid a straight relegation next season, I am just going to keep quiet for now," he added.

Asked whether he thinks not divulging those details will do good to his side in the coming seasons in the league, Tlhatlha said," This is our fifth season in this league, and we spend a lot of money running this team, but when the time is right for me to speak out, I will do so".

The team plans to hold a management meeting where amongst other reports, the chairperson's report would be produced and ideas would be shared on whether new players should be signed for next season or not.

Despite all the football politics, Tlhatlha is hopeful that one day the league will be run in a proper and fair manner, but he is doubtful whether his team would still be campaigning in the league at that time.

"By the time our league is run fairly, we might have perhaps sold the status already because we cannot afford to continue spending so much money without seeing any progress in the team," he concluded.