Alves virtually snatched victory at the death scoring in the 91st minute for Swallows to end the game 2-1. The Birds came close to scoring the game's opening goal eight minutes in when Igor Alves let fly from about 25 yards out. Unfortunately for the visitors his shot narrowly sailed over the crossbar with the Cosmos keeper well beaten.

Shortly afterwards, despite Swallows having the better of the opening ten minutes, it was Cosmos who took the lead in the 12th minute through Sekou Camara.

The Ezenkosi striker used his immense pace to latch onto a beautiful through ball which left him with just the keeper to beat. Consequently, Camara grabbed the chance with both hands firing the ball under Greg Etafia and into the back of the net, 1-0.

Thereafter, the Birds became more exasperated in their attacks, throwing men forward in their numbers to find the equaliser as soon as possible.

And Swallows came very close in the 16th minute when a great passing movement by them cut through the Cosmos defence like a hot knife through butter. The disappointment, however, came when Lungisani Ndlela failed to round of the move when he spooned his shot over the cross bar from only six yards out, with an empty goal at his mercy.

Instead the Birds had to wait till the 38th minute before they found themselves on level terms with their opponents. Sibusiso Khumalo was the man who found the equaliser for the visitors when he showed some superb skill, finishing with a powerful shot from an extremely tight angle on the left edge of the six-yard box, 1-1.

After drawing level, Swallows nearly saw themselves fall behind again two minutes later. Cosmos drove down the left flank and whipped in a great ball to the far post to find Bongani Thelestane open and unmarked. Sensing the danger Etafia quickly rushed out of his goalline and on seeing this Thelestane tried a cheeky little chip over the keeper, but sadly for the home fans the ball dropped on the wrong side of the crossbar.

The second half saw the home side start the better of the two teams as they proceeded to basically set up camp inside the Swallows half, but despite their dominance and threatening presence going forward they struggled to create any real goal scoring opportunities.

Then, somewhat against the run of play, Gordon Gilbert had a golden opportunity to put the Birds in front when a corner-kick found him unmarked inside the six-yard box. When it seemed easier to score than miss, Gilbert pushed his header wide.

Thelestane should definitely have scored his side’s second goal in the 82nd minute when an inch perfect pass from Siza Dlamini put him through on goal. With just the keeper to beat and plenty of time to do so, Thelestane looked certain to score, but Etafia was out of goal quickly and spread himself well to block the shot and deny Cosmos the winning goal.

And then just as all thought the points would be shared a goalmouth scramble inside the Ezenkosi’s 18-yard box saw Alves latch onto a loose ball and fire a shot goalwards. The keeper looked to have it covered before the effort took a wicked deflection off Larry Cohen, wrong footing Tshilo, and finding its way into the back of the net, 2-1.

With that piece of bad luck Cosmos lost yet another Absa Premiership game. On the other end of the scale Swallows will believe they deserved the win and will be happy with the three points.

Jomo Cosmos (1) 1 (Camara 12’)
Moroka Swallows (1) 2 (Khumalo 38’, Alves 90+1’)

Teams

Comsos: Phali – Tshilo, Oluwafemi, Badenhorst (Cohen 61’), Gacoussou, Theletsane, Samb, Mhlathe, Dlamini, Moloto, Camara (Gaborone 71’)

Swallows: Etafia – Mphahlele, Cichon, Kobola, Gilbert (Botha 86’), Hendricks, Ndlela (Radebe 74’), Tsutsulupa (Shivambu 56’), Alves, Haschick, Khumalo,

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