Ajax, Stars play to goalless stalemate

Free State Stars played to an eighth successive away draw in the 2009/10 Absa Premiership, with their match against Ajax Cape Town at the Boland Stadium on Wednesday afternoon ending goalless.

Eight seems to be the lucky number for Ea Lla Koto as far as away games is concerned this season: on the road they have played eight, drawn eight, scored eight and conceded eight, as well as picking up eight points.

New coach Gordon Igesund will be pleased that his charges are so hard to beat on their travels but will hope that they can add some three-pointers to their haul soon and move away from lower regions of the league.

The result sees the Free State side move up one position to 12th on the table, but they could yet drop two places if both AmaZulu and Maritzburg United win their games this evening.

The Urban Warriors remain in second spot and cut the gap to leaders SuperSport United to four points, but the rest of the top half of the table all now have a game in hand on the Cape side.

Ajax created the better chances in the first half, but they were unable to really trouble Kennedy Mweene in the Stars goal.

On 17 minutes Thulani Serero cut inside from the right flank to open up some space for a shot but his effort was tame and easily cleared away.

Two minutes later it was the turn of George Maluleka to have a crack at goal but his shot flew over the crossbar.

Both sides struggled to really get their passing games going, with possession being won and lost with regularity in midfield.

The Urban Warriors certainly saw more of the ball in the first 45 minutes but a lack of cutting edge and imagination up front meant that the game was goalless at the interval.

Ea Lla Koto made two early changes just after the break, replacing Tebelo Mofokeng and Matome Madimabe with Aleni Lebyane and Mpho Makola respectively, while Ajax switched Dipsy Selolwane for Mohamed Diallo.

Another of the Cape side’s substitutes, former Stars striker Sifiso Vilakazi, almost opened the scoring shortly after coming on, glancing a header just wide of goal on the hour mark.

On 65 minutes Stars midfielder Kleinbooi Taaibos let rip with a long-range strike that wasn’t too far off target and had Hans Vonk scrambling across his goal line.

Ten minutes later Lebyane beat Vonk to a long ball but was unable to direct his header on target.