THUNDERBIRDS Ladies from Butterworth have broken their own record in one season after conceding an unprecedented number of goals compared to their previous seasons in the Hollywoodbets Super League.
Meanwhile, on the other side, KwaZulu-Natal team Lindelani Ladies is the second club to be relegated from the Hollywoodbets Super League after Butterworth’s Thunderbirds Ladies were also relegated earlier this month.
The only former Transkei team to play in the Super League, Thunderbirds Ladies were hoping to improve their performance from previous seasons when the league started this year, but things did not go according to their plans.
In previous seasons, Coach Thembalethu Apleni’s team has never finished a season with fewer than 20 points or conceded more than 90 goals.
However, this time around, it looks like things were tough for them in the Super League as they struggled to register even a single victory and conceded goals non-stop.
Even over the weekend, Apleni’s team was hammered 6-0 by TS Galaxy Queens away in a league clash.
This big scoreline followed their demolition by Super League reigning champions, Mamelodi Sundowns, who defeated them 13-0 at home. That performance made things worse for the Butterworth team as it was their biggest defeat in the division.
After these results, it means Apleni’s side has conceded 128 goals this year with one game remaining before the season ends next month.
Chatting with the media, Coach Apleni highlighted that they are not surprised by these results because they lost so many players before the start of the season.
He said that after their players joined other teams, they were forced to look for new players who could hit the ground running, but unfortunately, things did not go well, resulting in their relegation from the division.
This poor performance led Thunderbirds Ladies to break two records in one season: conceding the most goals and failing to register more than three victories compared to their previous seasons, where they finished with over 20 points and more than three wins per season. Now, the Butterworth team has one game remaining in the Super League and is yet to register a single win, having lost 26 games and drawn 3.
On November 9, Thunderbirds Ladies will wrap up their season against Royal AM Ladies away. On the other side, Lindelani Ladies were relegated over the weekend when they lost 4-1 against UWC away.
Their loss has helped another Eastern Cape-based team, City Lads, to escape relegation as they will finish the season in position number 14.
