Marked for Thulani Modiba
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Oct 2028
0‑5 to Black Aces, 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.
Match30 Oct 2028
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mpho Chabatsane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Morgan Lorch, and the manager let it.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Nobody left the Platinum 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 dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑5 Gift Mphela left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Bradley Mabunda 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Oct 2028
3‑6 to Maritzburg 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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.02, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
No sign of nerves from Tebogo Moreri at 20 — 7.62
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tebogo Moreri did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Bongani Tau and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match21 Oct 2028
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Platinum Stars and Maritzburg United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mpho Chabatsane 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Beaten 6 times: a bad day for Thulani Modiba
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Kermit Mkhize
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Oct 2028
22 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Polokwane City were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Keagan Mphela and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Oct 2028
The medical room confirms 49 days on the sidelines for Ramahlwe Erasmus, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mpho Chabatsane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Oct 2028
A 1‑0 win over Polokwane City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thulani Modiba and Platinum Stars agree another 3 years.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gift Mphela on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Sep 2028
22 matches without a win for Platinum Stars
The run now stands at 22, and the questions being asked around Platinum Stars are no longer polite ones.
Match30 Sep 2028
0‑10 to Mamelodi Sundowns, 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
There were 9 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.
Match2 Oct 2028
Position 16, 0 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match30 Sep 2028
Platinum Stars are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 10 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Mpho Chabatsane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match30 Sep 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Platinum Stars and Mamelodi Sundowns in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Keagan Mphela 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2028
21 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.
Match23 Sep 2028
A 0‑4 beating by SuperSport United was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match23 Sep 2028
9 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad25 Sep 2028
There were 6 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Bongani Tau and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mpho Chabatsane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Kermit Mkhize
“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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.