Party time is beckoning at Township Rollers as they are 90 minutes away from defending their league title.
This comes after Mapalastina defied the odds as they beat Tafic 1-0 in Francistown on Saturday afternoon.
Zambian striker Musonda Mweuku scored the important goal to ensure that his side maintains a seven-point lead at the top of the Be MOBILE Premier League.
After 27 games, Rollers are sitting on 67 points while their closest rivals, Mochudi Centre Chiefs, have 60 points after their 2-1 win over Nico United over the holidays.
This means that maximum points in Rollers’ next league game would ensure that they defend the title, which has eluded them for five years before they won it last year.
But Rollers’ supporters would have to wait for eight days before they can witness their side lifting the title as they are no league games this coming weekend because of the Coca-Cola Cup final, which will be contested by Extension Gunners and Motlakase at the Lobatse Stadium.
On May 7, Rollers entertain Nico United in a game which is likely to attract hordes of their supporters.
In an interview with the Telegraph Sport on Monday, Rollers spokesperson, Kaizer Sekaba, said, “We’re thinking about winning the championship in the next game because that might make us lose focus. Even the players are aware that they had to fight against Nico United. We want to win all our remaining games and we’re going to treat them with the same attitude which has seen us through this campaign.”
Sekaba called on their supporters to attend the next game in large numbers so that they can witness history in the making as they become the first side to defend the title in many years.
Since 2004, no side has managed to defend the title. Premier League chief Phuthego Setete confirmed that they will take the trophy to Rollers-Nico United game as Mapalastina need three points to be crowned champions again.
Initially, the game was billed for UB Stadium but Setete said they are now looking at Lobatse Sports Complex because the university has been closed for renovations.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the log, the battle against relegation seems to be getting tough every weekend for TASC, Motlakase, Miscellaneous and Black Peril.
While an obituary has been written for Black Peril, there is going to be an interesting battle for survival for the other three sides.
Motlakase and Miscellaneous are sitting on 20 points each on position 14 and 15, respectively, while TASC have 23 points.
On Good Friday, Peril and Miscellaneous played to a dull goalless draw at SSKB Stadium Mogoditshane while TASC collected a point, which might prove crucial against ECCO City Greens in a Francistown derby that ended in a 1-1 stalemate.
It was not a good weekend for Motlakase as they went down 2-0 to BMC in Selebi-Phikwe. While they have been impressive in the Coca-Cola Cup, it seems to be the opposite for the Palapye side in the league. When the battle continues during the weekend of May 6-7, the picture might get clearer as to which sides will go down. All the sides have difficult assignments.
TASC travels down south to entertain Notwane, Black Peril visit BDF XI at SSKB Stadium, Motlakase visit ECCO City Greens in Francistown. Miscellaneous will be home to Uniao Flamengo Santos.
