Crystal Lake’s goalkeeper and captain, Excellent Mhondo, had a nightmare against Pirates, conceding four of the six goals the team lost by.
(Photo by Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images)

• Excellent Mkhonto was pleased with himself despite conceding four of the half-a-dozen goals Orlando Pirates scored in their 6-0 demolition of amateur side Crystal Lake in the Nedbank Cup’s last 32. 
• This was the second year in a row that Mkhonto was on the end of a 6-0 loss in the Nedbank Cup; last season he conceded all six for Liver Brothers against Sekhukhune United. 
• Despite this, the 29-year-old still harbours dreams of playing professionally. 
• For more sport news, go to the News24 Sport front page. 

Excellent Mkhonto was filled with pride as he walked around Mbombela Stadium on Saturday afternoon despite being hammered by Orlando Pirates. 

The Crytal Lake goalkeeper conceded four of the half-a-dozen goals Pirates scored in the 6-0 drubbing of the amateur side from Mpumalanga in the Nedbank Cup’s last 32.

This is the second time Mkhonto has been at the end of a 6-0 drubbing in the Nedbank Cup. Last season, while still on the books of Liver Bothers, Mkhonto shipped in six goals against Sekhukhune United.

He was spared from being the one beaten in all six goals on Saturday as he was substituted when Pirates were 4-0 up in the first half, with three of those goals coming in a space of 11 minutes. 

“I feel okay after … even if they scored 10, I would not have had a problem. I would have been proud. This is a big team and we had to play them,” said Mkhonto. 

“We didn’t have a choice, and say we won’t play because it is a big team and we will lose.”

The SAFA Regional League side wasn’t helped by the legal challenge Middelburg United brought to question the legitimacy of Crystal Lake as Mpumalanga’s representative in the province despite losing to Lake in the qualifying round. 

United claimed Lake’s physio was not who he is, which dragged the confirmation of which Mpumalanga side would be in the competition. Lake found out a few days before the game that their win over United was sustained – paving the way for them to face Pirates, the defending champions. 

“I don’t want to point fingers where I am not supposed to,” said Crystal Lake’s coach, Magic Nyalungu. 

“But that case had a very, very negative impact on our side as far as preparations are concerned. All the teams knew who they were going to face from the day the draw was conducted (on 18 January). 

“We found out a week ago that we would be the ones facing Pirates, because you can’t prepare when there’s a pending case because it could go either way. We started to make proper preparations when it was confirmed.”

This was the second time in two successive seasons that Excellent Mkhonto was part of teams who lost 6-0 in the Nedbank Cup. (Photo by Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images)

Gallo Images

The two crushing 6-0 defeats have not demoralised the 29-year-old Mkhonto who still harbours dreams of playing football professionally. Mkhonto, who is from Ximhungwe in Bushbuckridge, joined Lake on the first month of its establishment in July last year.

“Our confidence was down because of the way we came to this game (finding out a few days before the match,” said Mkhonto.

“But we had belief we could play well. But when we were inside, other players got nervous, and others were not in the game. I don’t know why it changed when we got into the game.

“We are happy to have played a big team so that we could learn something.

“There is nothing to learn in the level we are at, we are just playing.

“So, from this game we learnt a lot. Even how to interact with referees, you speak with them here but at our level you don’t. You can tell them where to f*ck off and nothing will happen to you.”