Ajax needed Billiat’s shooting boot

By Mark Gleeson

EXASPERATED Ajax Cape Town coach Jan Versleijen says he will seek to work with Khama Billiat on his finishing after the Zimbabwe international missed an extraordinary array of chances on Wednesday in the key league match against Orlando Pirates.

There were six clear cut opportunities for Billiat to win the game for the beleaguered Cape Town side in a highly entertaining game, but all were spurned by the energetic forward.

“He has all the skills of a great star but he needs now to add finishing to his list. We’ve seen in previous games what he is capable of but he missed some bad chances,” said the coach, whose side is still in deep trouble near the foot of the table.

“If you had said to me before the match that a 2-2 draw with a team of the quality of Pirates would be the result, I would have been happy. But after watching how many chances we wasted I’m really disappointed.”

Versleijen had benched Billiat for Ajax’s previous match against Free State Stars last Sunday but brought him on for the last 10 minutes. The 23- year-old responded with two goals as Ajax ended a long-running winless streak with a 4-2 triumph.

“So we spoke before the Pirates match and I said to him that if you are capable of giving me two goals in 10 minutes and if I do the maths properly and I keep you on for the full 90 minutes, then you’ll give me 18 goals! Well, funny thing is he could have had 18 against Pirates,” he joked. Sowetan