Etiosa Ighodaro scored at the death to hand AmaZulu a 1-0 win over Durban rivals Golden Arrows and claim the city’s bragging rights at the Mpumalanga Stadium on Saturday.
Usuthu moved into sixth place on the Premiership standings and boosted their chances of making next season’s MTN8 competition, while Abafana Bes’thende remained in 11th place.
With the game seemingly heading for a tightly contested draw, Nigerian-born Ighodaro emerged late to give AmaZulu a deserved lead in the 84th minute.
Usuthu’s top scorer scored his sixth goal of the season as he barged his way past a defender to head home a Tshepang Moremi floated cross.
Another instalment of the Durban derby took the stage under perfect sunny conditions in Hammarsdale, with both teams eager to match up to the heat of the weather.
And having played out to a goalless draw in the first round of this fixture, it was clear the two teams were eager to avoid a similar fate in this encounter, as the game began at a high intensity.
Arrows were sporting fresh faces on the bench as their recruitment of Royal AM’s players continued, with Thabo Matlaba featuring and Sabelo Sithole making his full debut, while Sphesihle Msomi sat on the bench alongside Shadrack Kobedi.
AmaZulu and their coach Arthur Zwane have been going through a sticky patch at this stage of the season, having lost four and won one of their last five before this game, and this showed in their first-half struggles to create any tangible chances.
Their best opportunity came in the 46th minute, with striker Etiosa Ighodaro almost finding the net with a speculative long-range strike.
The Nigerian-born forward received the ball on the half turn onto his ‘wrong’ foot, before unleashing with the left, but Edward Maova paddled back before parrying the effort away.
The hosts would’ve been the most disappointed of the two teams at halftime, having failed to call Richard Ofori into any kind of save in the opening 45 minutes.
Therefore, it came as no surprise when the hosts made the first move as they introduced Angelo van Rooi for Sithole at halftime.
That change didn’t seem to affect the flow of the game as AmaZulu continued to control the tempo and looked dangerous.
Arrows’ first real chance came in the 65th minute off an AmaZulu passing error that saw the ball fall for second-half substitute Bongani Cele.
However, the 26-year-old shied away from the responsibility and tried to lay it off for the on-rushing Siyanda Mthanti, who failed to control the ball as it rolled to the feet of Ofori.
That moment seemed to switch the momentum for the hosts as another ball fell nicely for Mthanti, again this time from a lobbed cross into the far post.
