Arrows moved into eighth position and improved their chances of finishing in the Top Eight, with two games remaining, when they beat Cape Town visitors Santos 3-1 at the Chatsworth Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Santos would have harboured similar intentions before the start of match but had themselves to blame for conceding two goals in the first half through defensive lapses and found themselves on the backfoot for the remainder of the game.

A blunder by Santos keeper, Lee Langeveldt, allowed the home team to open the scoring in the 30th minute. Arrows right winger, Njabulo Manqana, fired a cross into the Santos penalty area which sat up nicely for striker Richard Henyekane to drive goalward.

Langeveldt spilled the resulting regulation catch which crept over his goal line.

The goal seemed to fire-up the home side, and they started to make frequent darting runs towards the visitor's penalty area. From one such move, Arrows deservedly got their second goal three minutes before the half time interval when Nhlanhla Zothwane dispossessed Bevan Fransch just inside the Santos box and fired home a well-drilled shot past Langeveldt.

Santos made two quick changes soon after the break, bringing on attack-minded players in the form of Romano Scott and Ryan Chapman, with the later almost scoring with his first touch. He let rip with a scorching drive that required Arrows keeper, Helton Da Rocha, to react quickly and parry the ball to safety.

As the half wore on, Arrows seemed to take charge of proceedings and almost got another goal in the 74th minute through overlapping full-back, Siyanda Zwane who drew an excellent save from Langeveldt with a shot from about 35 yards. However, it was the visitors who got onto the score sheet in the 83rd minute when Eleazaar Rodgers guided Tyren Arendse's set piece into the path of captain Mogogi Gabonamong, who scored with a close range header.

The home team restored their two goal cushion when Henyekane ran onto a well-weighted ball from Kagisho Dikgacoi that caught the Santos defence flat-footed. Henyekane did the necessary and in the process became the league's leading goal scorer to date with 16 strikes. Arrows Zwane was sent off shortly thereafter for a second bookable offence.

Sapa

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