The battle for promotion to the Debmarine Namibia Premiership is hotting up with Blue Boys and Namibia Correctional Service the front runners to win the Southern Stream First Division ticket.
Blue Boys collected maximum points in Windhoek over the weekend to join NCS at the top of the log on 47 points each and with only three rounds remaining, the title race is expected to go down to the wire.
On Saturday, Blue Boys took a while to get going against Davos FC, but after a goalless first half Hendrik Gurirab opened their account, while further goals by Andreas Joseph and Ensley Gariseb sealed a resounding 3-0 victory.
The next day they clicked into top gear to beat DTS 6-1, with Jarrod Goseb scoring a brace, and Gurirab, Hundsdorfer Nakale, Deoderis Gaingob and Lavano Daniels one goal each.
That gave them a maxumum six-points haul to join NCS at the top of the log on 47 points each, although NCS have the advantage with an extra game in hand.
After their match against Davos, Blue Boys coach Paige Niilenge said they just stuck to the basics.
“The game started off a bit slow because we struggled a bit with the bumpy pitch, but we managed in the second half. I told my boys, let’s stick to our gameplan, let’s stick to the basics and then in the second half everything managed to fall in place,” he said.
“The title race is still on, we are still keeping our hopes up and I think we are going to take the title, that’s the plan. We can catch NCS, that’s our aim, but we will just remain patient and get there in due time – there are three more games to go and then we’ll take it home,” he added.
Blue Boys’ coastal neighbours, Eleven Arrows, meanwhile, are now 10 points behind in third place after dropping points against the same opponents.
On Saturday they lost 1-0 to DTS, before beating Davos 2-1 the next day. They are now third on 37 points, but with only three matches left to play, they cannot catch the leaders anymore.
DTS’ win against Arrows gave them three valuable points but they remain rooted to the bottom of the log and in real danger of being relegated to the Khomas Second Division.
DTS on 13 points and Try Again on 14 are the two clubs in the danger zone at the moment, but Black Africa and Oranjemund FC who are both on 16 points, are not out of danger yet.
The bottom two clubs will be automatically relegated to the second division, while the five regional second division winners – from //Kharas, Erongo, Hardap, Khomas and Omaheke will battle it out via a promotional play-off, from which two teams will be promoted to the SSFD.
In other results over the weekend, NCS beat Latinos 4-0, Ramblers beat Black Africa 4-1, Oranjemund beat Try Again 3-1, and Mariental and Dates Eleven drew 0-0.
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