{"id":27747,"date":"2023-04-20T11:32:50","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T11:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat"},"modified":"2023-04-20T12:05:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T12:05:26","slug":"bantu-back-in-driving-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat","title":{"rendered":"Bantu back in driving seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The topsy-turvy Vodacom Premier League title race offered another dramatic twist yesterday as Bantu defeated Linare 2-0 to open a four-point lead at the top of the table.<\/p>\n

Just a week ago Bantu were in crisis. They had just suffered a crushing loss to Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) and their South African coach Abram Mongoya quit his post to return home.<\/p>\n

A week later Bantu are once again title favourites after a commanding performance against a Linare side that had title dreams of their own. The much-awaited fixture was a catch-up game that was put back due to Likuena\u2019s tie against Zambia in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers late last month.<\/p>\n

And, with both teams contesting for the league title, it was always going to be about who would take their chances. Bantu did and now they are smiling again.<\/p>\n

Bantu caretaker coach, Bob Mafoso, who was roped in last week to save their sinking ship praised his players for beating a dangerous foe in the title race. He added that there was no time to change anything. There was also no need to.<\/p>\n

The victory has given \u2018A Mats\u030co Matebele\u2019 some precious breathing room and Mafoso, who has authored two wins in two games in the space of three days, is proving to be the messiah the people of<\/p>\n

Mafeteng hoped he would be. On the other hand, LDF are suddenly falling apart. They suffered a 1-0 defeat to Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) in another of yesterday\u2019s games.<\/p>\n

This was LDF\u2019s second loss in a row after beating Bantu. What a difference a week makes. \u201cIt would be unfair for me to say that after seven days it is my work, it\u2019s the teams.<\/p>\n

I am inheriting a team that has not been doing badly, it\u2019s just that we have not been getting results,\u201d Mafoso said. \u201cEvery team goes through a rough patch which is what I think we went through.<\/p>\n

Luckily, we won three points today and, more importantly, against a team that comes behind us,\u201d he said. Both of Bantu\u2019s goals came in the second half through their pair of Likuena stars, Lits\u030cepe Marabe and Lehlohonolo Fothoane.<\/p>\n

From there the Mafeteng side showed their championship mettle to see out the tie. A fourth league title in the past five years now appears to be loading.<\/p>\n

Bantu are first with 58 points. Linare are in second place with 54 points. LDF and Matlama are third and fourth, tied on 53 points. All four clubs have played 26 games and just four more matches remain in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no time to change at this time, it\u2019s just to make the players believe they are doing the right thing,\u201d Mafoso said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an important game on Sunday (away against Lijabatho), we want to forget about this one.<\/p>\n

Maybe we are lucky because the teams coming behind us didn\u2019t do well,\u201d he said. Mafoso said Bantu are expecting a difficult game against Lijabatho. He said it would be a different game altogether to the one against Linare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tricky game, they beat us in the first round,\u201d Mafoso said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be an easy game. In the league it is important not to lose. It is a different game. They are aggressive and they believe they can beat us because they did it in the first round.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The topsy-turvy Vodacom Premier League title race offered another dramatic twist yesterday as Bantu defeated Linare 2-0 to open a four-point lead at the top of the table. Just a week ago Bantu were in crisis. They had just suffered a crushing loss to Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) and their South African […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":27746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,246,245,870],"class_list":["post-27747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-vodacom"],"yoast_head":"\nBantu back in driving seat - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The topsy-turvy Vodacom Premier League title race offered another dramatic twist yesterday as Bantu defeated Linare 2-0 ...\" \/>\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\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bantu back in driving seat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The topsy-turvy Vodacom Premier League title race offered another dramatic twist yesterday as Bantu defeated Linare 2-0 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat\" \/>\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=\"2023-04-20T11:32:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-20T12:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681974243.65.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"354\" \/>\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=\"3 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\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Bantu back in driving seat\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-20T11:32:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-20T12:05:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat\"},\"wordCount\":589,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681974243.65.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Vodacom\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bantu-back-in-driving-seat\",\"name\":\"Bantu back in driving seat - 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