Chiefs stay ahead of the pack

Wednesday night's Castle Premiership match at Newlands was not an occasion to dish out diplomas for outstanding defending.

Kaizer Chiefs beat Santos 3-1, but the spectators should have been treated to a lot more goals as both sets of defences committed tactical suicide from the start. However, the finishing left a lot to be desired, as we have become accustomed to.

As if to add to the comedy of errors, the rain gods sent down just enough of a misty shower midway through the first stanza to cause even more uncertainty.

Another glaring weakness on both sides was through-balls being over-hit all the time. Somehow, the playmakers just could not get the right weight on their final passes.

Also, despite the generous width of the Newlands pitch, there were precious few good movements down the flanks.

Dipsey Selolwane and Marawaan Bantam did play some delightful soccer down the middle to keep Chiefs on the hop for spells.

In the other half of the pitch, the action centred around the long-striding David Obua, Arthur Zwane and Gert Schalkwyk.

Schalkwyk's opening goal in the 24th minute was an accident waiting to happen due to some slack marking by the home team.

All the nippy striker had to do was side-foot the ball past a bemused Brenden Wardle after the entire Santos back line had gone walkies.

Hardly a minute later, though, the Amakhosi back line returned the favour, albeit via a horrific error by Rowan Fernandez.

The Bafana Bafana goalkeeper threw a punch at an innocuous cross from the left and saw his feeble effort land at the feet of a grateful Carlo Scott, who won't score many easier goals.

Earlier Scott had two chances to beat Fernandez from good positions, but rushed his attempts straight at the keeper.

Chiefs regained the lead on the stroke of halftime. Wardle showed his counterpart how to punch an even bigger hole in the air and Patrick Mayo gleefully headed into the open net.

The same player saved the day for Chiefs when he cleared Selolwane's shot off the line after Fernandez had got one hand to the ball.

Minutes earlier, Wardle was spared more embarrassment at the other end when Zwane's speculative cross bounced off the top of his bar to safety.

Santos introduced veteran Jean Marc Ithier for Scott soon after the break in an obvious attempt to further challenge the Chiefs back line under the high ball.

Nothing much came of the idea, although Omar Hendricks blasted a scorcher against the woodwork after another poor punch by Fernandez under pressure.

And the hosts produced another piece of poor marking when Schalkwyk waltzed in to complete his brace in identical fashion eight minutes before the end.

Fernandez redeemed himself with two excellent stops in the final moments of the intriguing encounter.

It was that kind of game, with a rather fine line between winning and losing.

The bottom line, however, is that Santos dropped three valuable points at home and coach Roger de Sa's wish to consistently stand up to the big guns is yet to be realised.