Emmanuel coach Musa Nkondo.

By: Refilwe Sebola

Emmanuel FC coach Musa Nkondo is blaming “the poor standard of refereeing” in the ABC Motsepe league stream A for his team’s recent poor run of results.

The charismatic coach who recently rejoined the Giyani based club from Vondwe X1 Bullets said referees in the league have been very unfair to his team.

“To be honest my team is playing very good football however bad refereeing is deterring us from registering maximum points”

Nkondo was referring to his team’s failure to win three consecutive league games after he took over the coaching reigns from coach Sello Chokwe. Since he rejoined the club a month ago Emmanuel only won 1-0  against Madritas, drew 0-0 with struggling Giyani Happy Boys and relegation threatened United Artist respectively before drawing 2-2 with Musina United away in Musina.

Nkondo said “Against Artist my goalkeeper was unfairly dismissed for handling the ball outside the big box however the Artist striker was in an offside position long before the incident happened and  In the Musina United game the referee gave them two dubious goals. Their first goal was a clear offside and the second goal was not a penalty at all. It was a 50/50 ball and our goalkeeper won the ball. Their striker came late and tried to kick the ball from the goalkeeper’s hands and he fell. How is that a penalty” he asked.

Their last weekend game against Maruleng Celtics in Hoedspruit was also full of drama and controversy. Emmanuel team manager was sent off for protesting against the referees’ decisions and the game was eventually abandoned few minutes before final whistle.

The game was deadlocked at 1-1 before it was called off. Whether the game will be replayed or not remains to be seen. Emmanuel will be aiming for maximum points this Friday when they meet Musina United at the beautiful Malamulele Stadium.