{"id":24149,"date":"2023-01-17T08:47:29","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T08:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held"},"modified":"2023-01-17T09:16:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T09:16:36","slug":"linare-held","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held","title":{"rendered":"Linare held"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Title-chasing Linare were held to a frustrating goalless draw yesterday afternoon in Morija by a Lijabatho side that left the pitch feeling they should have won the action-packed Vodacom Premier League encounter.<\/p>\n

Linare went into the game on 28 points, six behind leaders Bantu with a game in hand and a win would have brought them to within five points of \u2018A Mats\u030co Matebele\u2019 but \u2018Tse Tala\u2019 were clearly second best against Lijabatho and things could have been worse had the hosts not missed three clear-cut chances to win the game.<\/p>\n

In fact, Linare were under so much pressure that the visitors looked to be counting down the minutes to the end of the game and they were lucky to leave Morija with a point.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Linare head coach Leslie Nots\u030ci insisted a draw was a fair result and gave credit to his players for battling for 90 minutes. \u201cIt\u2019s a fair result, we came here expecting a tough encounter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLijabatho is a very good team, we have seen for a long period extending from last season to this season that (Lijabatho) is a competitive team, so we were expecting this,\u201d Nots\u030ci added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to give credit to the players because they absorbed the pressure for 90 minutes because the game was 50\/50.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of goal-scoring opportunities; our defence and midfield stayed strong, there was a lot of creativity and, at the same time, their defence also stayed strong,\u201d the Linare mentor said.<\/p>\n

Lijabatho, for their part, continued their excellent and surprising campaign and they are in fifth place after 15 games \u2014 the halfway mark of their season. Key to their success has been their home ground which they have turned into a fortress.<\/p>\n

Lijabatho have lost just once in six games in Morija this season and teams go there knowing they will have to fight to get anything from their trips and yesterday was no different.<\/p>\n

The match was a catch-up fixture of a game postponed before the Christmas break due to bad weather and Lijabatho coach Charles Manda said they came into the match knowing it would be an \u201cugly game\u201d because it was the first one after the festive season.<\/p>\n

Manda bemoaned his side\u2019s lack of finishing and said they will have to go back to the drawing board to work on it. \u201cComing from the Christmas break the players are rusty, so we knew it was going to be an ugly game and that it was going to be decided by the team which was going to score the first goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe squandered a lot of scoring opportunities, we just need to go back to the drawing board and rectify those to say if you have four or five chances, let\u2019s bury one at least so that we can get the three points,\u201d Manda said.<\/p>\n

Lijabatho thought they should have had a penalty in the 73rd minute but after thinking for several moments, the referee instead awarded a freekick against the hosts.<\/p>\n

The decision irked Lijabatho\u2019s technical team, players and fans and loud groans from unhappy supporters could be heard. Linare\u2019s technical team and players, meanwhile, looked guilty in their relief and Manda insisted they should have been given.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it was (a penalty) but the referee is the man in charge I can\u2019t do otherwise, I am standing outside he is the one taking control of the game,\u201d Manda bemoaned.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The referee) thought otherwise to say it\u2019s a free-kick, but to me it was inside the box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a penalty but we don\u2019t have VAR (Video Assistant Referee) here to review.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf VAR was there, that was a clear penalty to me,\u201d he added. In another twist, the game started 20 minutes later than scheduled.<\/p>\n

At around 2pm Lijabatho were still cutting the grass which meant the teams could not do their warm-up on time. Linare complained strongly about the pitch before the game and Nots\u030ci said the surface did not bring the best out of both teams.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, despite the drama and his side\u2019s struggles, Nots\u030ci said football was the winner in the end. \u201cThe pitch also played a big part,\u201d Nots\u030ci said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you saw, it was only when we arrived here when they were cutting grass so the surface was not going to bring the best out of both teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, all in all, the referees did a good job, they managed the game well, so I think the winner at the end was football.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Title-chasing Linare were held to a frustrating goalless draw yesterday afternoon in Morija by a Lijabatho side that left the pitch feeling they should have won the action-packed Vodacom Premier League encounter. Linare went into the game on 28 points, six behind leaders Bantu with a game in hand and a win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,246,125,245],"class_list":["post-24149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-football","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nLinare held - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Title-chasing Linare were held to a frustrating goalless draw yesterday afternoon in Morija by a Lijabatho side that lef ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Linare held\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Title-chasing Linare were held to a frustrating goalless draw yesterday afternoon in Morija by a Lijabatho side that lef ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-17T08:47:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-17T09:16:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673932735.17.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Linare held\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-17T08:47:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-17T09:16:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held\"},\"wordCount\":776,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673932735.17.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"football\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/linare-held\",\"name\":\"Linare held - 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