ORLANDO Pirates bounced back into contention to challenge champions and Absa Premiership leaders SuperSport United after they destroyed second- placed Ajax Cape Town 3-0 at the Orlando Stadium on a cold Saturday night.

But once again Bucs’ coach Ruud Krol is not getting carried away. However, he did admit the win was the ideal boost ahead of the Buccaneers’ crunch showdown against Mamelodi Sundowns at the Super Stadium on Wednesday night.

The win puts Bucs on 27 points, one behind Ajax but still six adrift of SuperSport.

“This win has given us more confidence ahead of another tough game against Sundowns on Wednesday. The morale is high and what pleased about the win was that we were forced to play without our two injured Bafana Bafana stars (midfielder Teko Modise and defender Lucas Thwala) who returned from playing against Japan and Jamaica with injuries, and we still won comfortably,” said Krol.

He said he was angry at his players returning from international duty carrying injuries. “I was not happy when I learnt that both players could not play against Ajax and could be out for the Sundowns game.”

Katlego Mashego netted the first goal in the action-packed first half with Phenyo Mongala scoring in the 53rd minute and Rooi Mahamutsa adding the third from the penalty spot.

New Urban Warriors coach and Krol’s Dutch countryman Foppe de Haan said that despite losing 3-0 he was not going to panic.

A second-half scoring spree after they had trailed by a goal gave Moroka Swallows a stimulating 3-1 win over Golden Arrows in Durban and left the MTN8 champions ruing a succession of wasted scoring opportunities.

Arrows opened the scoring through a typically opportunist goal from Richard Henyekane two minutes after the interval – but instead of heralding an anticipated period of domination by the Durban club it was the Birds who swooped on a productive late flight, equalising through Zambian international and former Kaizer Chiefs striker Collins Mbesuma and ending up imperiously on top.

Mbesuma finally demonstrated traces of the lethal finishing that was largely responsible for Chiefs annexing their last league title some four years ago – emerging with a second goal in the 67th minute.

Substitute David Radebe had the ball in the net five minutes later, but was correctly ruled off-side – only to pop up again in the 74th minute when his shot took a wicked deflection and ended in the net for Swallows’ third goal.

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt was ready to hit the ceiling after his team seemed to go walk-about and almost surrendered two points in their 3-2 victory over Maritzburg United in Pretoria.

Persistent rain over 24 hours before the kick-off had ceased, but the game was still a dampener for the coach of the defending champions and log leaders who had led 2-0 and 3-1 and seemed to have the three points all sewn up.

But Hunt himself might not have been blameless for the fade-out, with second-half substitutions doing nothing to enhance SuperSport’s performance after the champions had led 1-0 at the interval through a snap goal from Jabulani Malulea in the 45th minute.

SuperSport appeared to take control of the proceedings when a scorching shot on the run from Liberian international Anthony Laffor gave them a 2-0 lead in the 54th minute.

But Maritzburg substitute Brice Aka took advantage of lackadaisical SuperSport defending to reduce the deficit in the 70th minute and insert fresh life into the struggling KwaZulu Natal combination.

Laffor took advantage of Maritzburg’s leaky defence to score his second goal in the 72nd minute and seemingly consolidate SuperSport’s advantage at the top of the log.

But Maritzburg refused to go down without a fight and Rudolph Bester recorded a well-deserved goal in the 81st minute to keep the outcome in the balance until the final whistle. – Sapa