Johannesburg (AFP) – A mid-season recovery by promoted Black Leopards in the South African Premiership extended to three straight wins Saturday when they triumphed 2-0 at home against SuperSport United. 

Zambian Mwape Musonda bagged a brace for the club from remote northeastern town Thohoyandou, converting a penalty early in the second half and banging in a late victory-clinching goal.

Leopards’ Malta-born coach Dylan Kerr took charge late last year, replacing Joel Masutha after Leopards had won only twice and the club fell to the bottom of the table at one stage.

Kerr, who joined Leopards from top Kenyan club Gor Mahia, had bouquets and brickbats for his team after outplaying mid-table SuperSport and rising to 11th. 

“We transformed what we practised at training all week into reality and became heroes in the eyes of our supporters. There was a real do-or-die spirit,” he said.

“Keeping our first clean sheet since October was fantastic with our goalkeeper (King Ndlovu) making one crucial save from a free-kick when the match hung in the balance.

“I was concerned, though, by the number of scoring chances we wasted through making wrong decisions in good positions and Musonda should have scored at least one more goal.” 

Elsewhere, Austrian Roland Putsche struck an 85th-minute equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw for Cape Town City at home against third-from-bottom Baroka.    

Ayanda Patosi put City ahead on the stroke of half-time before a lively match took a dramatic turn with Baroka netting twice within six minutes soon after half-time.

Tebogo Sodi equalised, then Jemondre Dickens fired a harshly-awarded penalty over Dutch goalkeeper Peter Leeuwenburg for the lead.

Putsche rattled the woodwork with a long-range shot before firing the ball past Zimbabwean goalkeeper Elvis Chipezeze and into the net from just outside the six-yard box.

In Durban, mid-table Highlands Park drew for the 10th time in 17 Premiership matches when they held bottom-half AmaZulu 0-0.