Sekhukhune United secured a narrow 1-0 win to spoil Kaizer Chiefs’ 53rd birthday, while Cape Town City came from behind to clinch a 2-1 victory over Orlando Pirates on Saturday evening.

Chiefs was founded on January 7, 1970. Since then, they have won a record 54 domestic trophies and are the most popular club in the republic. When they play their biggest rivals, Orlando Pirates, 90,000 people show up to watch.

The Amakhosi were expected to win all three points at home on the southern outskirts of Johannesburg against rivals who hadn’t won on the road in seven tries this season.

But Sangare, who has filled in for the Zambian Toaster Nsabata for most of the season, made a lot of great saves and helped his teammates ruin the party as they moved up to 10th place.

After Chiefs kept up pressure in the first half, Vusumzi Mncube put the away team ahead after 49 minutes.

He took advantage of an opponent’s carelessness and raced past him to score with a low shot that Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune got a hand on but couldn’t stop from going into the net.

“We were not in a good league position so this win is very important,” said Sangare. “There is no option now other than to fight for victories.

“Having not played in the last match, I was fresher than many of my teammates and that contributed to my performance tonight.

“Our new coach (Brandon Truter) has given us the freedom to express ourselves, which is very important. Unless you enjoy football, there is no point playing the game.”

Even though they lost, Chiefs stayed in fourth place, but they are now 13 points behind leaders Mamelodi Sundowns and almost certainly out of the title race.

Sundowns beat Richards Bay 2-0 on the road on Friday, but the next five teams in the table all lost over the weekend.

Second-placed Golden Arrows beat SuperSport United 2-1 on the road in Durban, where Bradley Grobler’s late first-half goal was wrongly called offside.

Juan Zapata and Darwin Gonzalez scored goals for Cape Town City as they came from behind to beat Pirates 2-1.

Photo by Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix