David Mathebula became the first Chiefs player to pick up a man of the match award since new Premier League sponsors ABSA began introducing the awards in February. The 24-year-old Elim-born midfielder was rewarded for his outstanding display against Free State Stars on Sunday afternoon in Phuthaditjaba. Mathebula tore up the pitch and was the creative genius through the ninety minutes and masterminded Chiefs comeback, which ultimately lead to The Amakhosi winning the match 4-1.

When Chiefs went a goal down through a Kennedy Mweene penalty, it spurred Mathebula into action, as he upped the tempo setting up Gerald Sibeko for the equalizer, he then spectacularly shot Chiefs ahead a minute later with his first goal of the season.

The fight

Mathebula was on top of his game on Sunday and was able to lay on chance after chance for his teammates. He believes that the show The Amakhosi put up against Stars was the best of the season so far. The tricky midfielder said to kaizerchiefs.com after the match “when we went a goal down I thought to myself and spoke to a few of the guys and said we cannot lose this game. We were playing well making good space for ourselves up front and we knew that the match was there for the taking. I felt that I needed to give that extra 10% to help the team and when I did it worked out for the best”.

Mission accomplished

Mathebula ran the roost on the right side of midfield against Stars and was not scared to take on players. Seeing Stars take off Duncan Lechesa was particularly pleasing for him “I said before the game that I admire Lechesa as he is one of those hard working long serving stalwarts of the local game and I knew that he was going to give me a tough time. Being able to get the better of him made the day all the more enjoyable and seeing a great player like him being taken off was a sign that we as a team had done a great job. You know when the opposition are substituting an inspirational player like Lechesa that it really is your teams day to enjoy”.

Man-of-the-match

For his troubles, Mathebula picked up the man-of-the-match award and will go into the vote for the March player of the month prize, which will be decided at the end of the month and he could walk away with R10 000 in cash. He talked kaizerchiefs.com through his wonder goal saying, “when I was faced with the two guys in front of I knew that if I get past them I could lay the ball of two one of the other guys to finish as we did with the first goal. Once I passed them my angles were narrowed and all I could to was turn and aim for goal at first I thought the keeper had the post covered, when it evaded him there was only one place it was going and that was over the line”.