Dare I compare Safa Cape Town’s Third Division League to that of the English Premier League – what a nerve!
I mean, the disparity between these two leagues is like night and day, they are worlds apart, yet there seems to be striking similarities and parallels that can be drawn between these two entities.
For starters, both leagues have the same number of teams (20) and the same number of games (38) obviously, which stretch over ten months, making it a gruelling, interesting and exciting affair. Both are like marathons and its cutthroat nature is exhausting and can really make or break any side that is not accustomed to the league or take things for granted.
Now, the money floating around in the Third Division is obviously nothing compared to the EPL’s budget, but there’s a clear pattern which shows that clubs with a strong financial backing seem to flourish more than the so called lesser or uninfluential clubs.
Needless to say, Safa CT’s Third Division earned the name of the ‘Graveyard League’ as it has buried the dreams and aspirations of many clubs in the past. Not to mention the struggle it is to win promotion to this league.
Throw in a few cup competitions and it further adds to the demands of the league where anyone can beat anyone on the day. Not to mention the workload where clubs can play up to three games within seven days – all in all, it’s not for the faint-hearted and it’s a case of survival of the fittest.
If one talks about unpredictability, then one does not have to look further than the shock result between Cape Town City and Good Hope FC over the weekend.
Given the free-scoring form of City of late – where they scored a whopping 25 goals across five matches – a 2-2 draw against the relegation candidates was a complete shock to say the least. And this happened at the home ground of the Citizens.
And this is the beauty of this league – you cannot just rock up and expect to collect the points, it has to be earned!
Some of the postmortems from the match were that Good Hope was extremely competitive and up for the challenge, showing signs of improvement, but it does very little to convince its rival that it can escape relegation, as they remain winless after 14 matches.
Apart from the unbeaten log leaders Saxon Rovers (35 points), who have played a game less and are operating like a steam train, saying to the others ‘catch me if you can,’ the second placed and third placed Greenwood Athletic (30) and Rygersdal FC (29) respectively, refuses to go away and are still flexing their muscles despite a couple of unfavourable results in between.
Both these sides are now unbeaten in five matches and are keeping the pressure on coach Robbie Pretorius’ Saxons.
This comes after coach Lionel Miller’s Greenwood humbled their Cape District Football Association (CDFA) neighbours, Ashford Athletic by 3-1 in a derby at The Bridge on Saturday afternoon, thanks to goals by Dean Filander, Denzil Lewis and Aldrich Viljoen.
Ashford will be the first to testify they had no answers for the Green Machine, who have started 2026 like a house on fire.
Furthermore, this comfortable victory should be enough to silence Greenwood’s noisy neighbours and a stark reminder to Ashford who rules the roost at the CDFA.
Miller’s counterpart and friend, Ashraf Calvert, is also weaving his magic with his young Rygersdal side following maximum points after their double header wins over Antalyaspor JPM Cape Town (3-1) and Trinitarians (1-0) away.
This will indeed make for an exciting second half of the season just as the EPL is also currently displaying!
