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Celtic slump to first defeat

2012-07-16 09:06:07

Bloemfontein Celtic suffered their first defeat of the pre-season campaign this weekend as they went down 4-2 to Golden Arrows on Sunday

Larsen: Work still to be done

Phunya Sele Sele entered the Pretoria encounter on the back of two successive victories over Bidvest Wits, but they were unable to hold back a rampant Arrows outfit.

Siwelele managed to open the scoring through Luyanda Bacela, although they found themselves 3-1 down at half-time. Clinton Larsen’s men managed to cut the deficit down to one goal thanks to a Siyabonga Nontshinga penalty, but they were unable to go one further as the Lamontville club hit back to end the match 4-2.

Celtic manager John Maduka told the club’s official website: “This was a very tough game for both clubs and it was tightly contested. The coach (Larsen) gave almost all our contracted players a chance in the match.

“He used two different teams in both halves to try and find the best combination ahead of the new season. He also gave a few trialists some game time.

“Although we lost the practice match, we are happy about the way our players performed. They are slowly but surely regaining their fitness levels.”

Celtic still have two pre-season friendlies to contest, starting against Moroka Swallows on Tuesday before they face newly promoted PSL outfit University of Pretoria two days later.

“Obviously, those will be another good practice matches for us. We are also planning to play against our neighbours (Free State Stars) before playing against Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 Cup next month. We want to play tough matches so that we can see how ready we are for next season,” Maduka added.