25 September 2019 — Last year’s Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup finalists, Clapham High and John Ramsey High, progressed into this year’s semi-final stages after finishing top of their respective groups.
Ramsey, who lost to Clapham in last year’s final, finished top of Group B with seven points, managing two wins and a draw with without suffering a single defeat.
They scored a total of six goals in their group fixtures, only conceding just once in their final group tie against Rosina Sedibane (3-1).
Clapham, on the other hand, won all of their three Group D matches without conceding a single goal, while also scoring a total of eight goals from all three group matches combined.
Clapham will now face Group A winners, Khula High School in the semis on Thursday (26 September) at 13h30, while John Ramsey are yet to find out their semi-final opponents from Group C.
As it stands, Tshikota High top the five-team Group C standings with 10 points after four matches played, while Siphokuhle High trail three points behind them with a game in hand.
Siphokuhle will need to win their final Group C tie against Mount Currie High by three goals or more, if they are to overtake Tshikota High at the helm.
Both Tshikota and Siphokuhle are yet to concede in their respective group matches in this tournament.
Tshikota coach, Justice Matloga, who has been at the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup national finals three times already, said he is crossing his fingers for his side not to miss out on another opportunity to progress into the final four of the tournament for the second year running.
“This is my third time leading a team into this tournament,” Matloga said. “I finished third with Haggai High back in 2017 before failing to progress into the knockout stages with Tshikota in last year’s Kay Motsepe Schools Cup edition which took place in Pretoria. Our overall wish is to reach this year’s final and hopefully win it as well.
“The team has done well and we hope that everything will work in our favour in these group matches. Our short-term goal is to reach the knockout stages of this competition and then work our way to the final from there.”