Marked for Erick Ngcobo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Black Aces's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Black Aces has to find a result from somewhere.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Sifiso Ngcobo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
Bloemfontein Celtic left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Thabiso Sesane
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morgan Khune is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Teboho Mkhize
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Black Aces lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Black Aces's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Black Aces has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Erick Ngcobo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aden Dreyer, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ajax Cape Town left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Teboho Mkhize
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Black Aces lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Black Aces
0‑4 against Kaizer Chiefs, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Black Aces's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Black Aces has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
Black Aces are taken apart by Kaizer Chiefs — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ngcobo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nkosikhona Ndaba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Teboho Mkhize damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Black Aces, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Black Aces
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Black Aces are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Erick Ngcobo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Morgan Khune falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. University of Pretoria will be the happier side with the point.
Market7 Sep 2026
The window shut and Hlompho Zungu is still in the building
Black Aces spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 27 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Teboho Mkhize and Black Aces agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sifiso Ngcobo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match8 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ngcobo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.