Cape Town Spurs suffered a 3-1 defeat to Cape Town City, making them the first team in South Africa to lose seven straight DStv Premiership games at the beginning of a season.

Before the Cape Town derby, both Umtata Bush Bucks and newly promoted Spurs had lost six games in a row in the 1999-2000 Premiership.

Ashley Cupido scored in the third minute to get Spurs off to a great start, but City tied it up before halftime when Venezuelan Darwin Gonzalez scored on a penalty.

Khanyiso Mayo, the son of former South Africa player Patrick Mayo, scored twice in the second half to make up for his missed chances earlier in the game.

After winning their first two league games, City only got one point out of a possible 15 in their next five games, which was a bad streak.

Eric Tinkler, the coach for City, and Shaun Bartlett, the coach for Spurs, both won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996. They played against each other in the match.

“We did better when spreading the ball wide. My boys showed character resilience and creativity,” said Tinkler, once the ‘hard man’ of the national team midfield.

Rather than dwell on seven losses, former forward Bartlett said “there are 23 matches to go and a victory on Wednesday (at home to SuperSport United) could make a lot of difference”.

In the other game, Polokwane City beat Royal AM 1-0 at home thanks to a goal by Ndumiso Mabena, who was 36 years old.

Photo by Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix