The Free State Stars Chronicle
Match17 Oct 2026
Free State Stars taken apart
0‑3 to SuperSport United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match19 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Free State Stars
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Sifiso Mokotjo keeps Free State Stars in it on his own
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mandla Erasmus 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 Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Sifiso Mokotjo
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Free State Stars lose Morgan Mphela
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Free State Stars dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Morgan Mahlangu: “No excuses”
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
When it matters, Sifiso Mokotjo 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.
In brief
- Squad Words at Free State Stars training over how hard people work
- The dugout Rivaldo Manyama does not fit this one
- Player ratings Teboho Mkhize comes off early