Pietermaritzburg - Cape Town City made it four DStv Premiership wins on the spin as they beat Maritzburg United 1-0 at the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday night.
History repeated itself after Eric Tinkler's side recorded the feat for only the second time in their history, having also beaten the Team of Choice back in November 2016 to register a fourth straight win.
Khanyisa Mayo slotted home a 45th-minute penalty to take his tally for the season to four goals, which secured victory for the Citizens, who went level with third-placed Kaizer Chiefs on 39 points.
City came into the match on the back of three consecutive victories and they were looking to complete the league double over the KZN outfit after emerging 3-2 victors in the reverse fixture in December.
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The visitors almost made a dream start in Pietermaritzburg when Tashreeq Morris got on the end of Craig Martin's cross in the second minute, but his effort was straight at Marcel Engelhardt.
Morris had another sniff at goal in the 11th minute following good work on the right from Martin and Thamsanqa Mkhize, whose cross failed to be converted by the striker.
Maritzburg threatened soon afterwards as Friday Samu hit a shot on the turn from range. It didn't trouble Hugo Marques, while back up the other end, Brice Ambina was just inches away from breaking the deadlock with a strike from inside the area that flew wide of the post on the quarter-hour mark.
Engelhardt pulled off a superb save to deny Thabo Nodada midway through the first half after Mayo had cut the ball back to him on the edge of the box.
Genino Palace was unable to hit the target in the 29th minute following neat link-up play with Tawanda Macheke and Martin was wasteful when Nodada's initial shot fell into his path on 43 minutes.
The Citizens were presented with a golden opportunity to open the scoring on the stroke of halftime, after being awarded a penalty and Mayo gleefully accepted the gift to beat Engelhardt from 12 yards out.
Engelhardt produced another fine save to keep out Nodada at close range in the 69th minute as the team from the Mother City went in search of a second goal.
They should have wrapped up the contest five minutes from time when the referee pointed to the spot once more, but Mayo squandered the chance as he rattled the spot-kick against the crossbar to give the Team of Choice a glimmer of hope late on.
However, Ernst Middendorp's charges couldn't break down the opposition defence in the minutes that remained and City took home all three points.
IOL sport