The Platinum Stars Courier
Match9 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Platinum Stars
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Platinum Stars
Khama Mokoena 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Hlompho Lorch is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keagan Mothiba 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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Nobody could get near Itumeleng Kekana
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
One of those days for Siyabonga Dolly
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match9 Jan 2027
Siyabonga Dolly rescues a point for Platinum Stars
It needed Siyabonga Dolly to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against SuperSport United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad11 Jan 2027
When it matters, Khama Mokoena plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
An afternoon Itumeleng Mkhize will want back
Marked 5.71. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
In brief
- Player ratings An afternoon Luther Kekana will want back
- The terraces The stands have heard the Siyabonga Dolly talk too
- Loan watch Ramahlwe Hlatshwayo first choice at Bidvest Wits