Citizens come out on top against nine-man Swallows

Taahir Goedeman opened the scoring on eight minutes while Taariq Fielies added a second on 55 minutes.

To make matters worse for the Dube Birds, they were reduced to 10 men when Keegan Allan was dismissed on the hour mark. There was also an even later dismissal for Bongani Sam on 93 minutes.

Swallows were quickest out of the blocks though as Evans Rusike forced Darren Keet into a good early save after just one minute.

Gregory Damons then saw his shot blocked en route to goal as Yagan Sasman headed a good Damons cross on target, only for his effort to be plucked out of the air by Keet.

So it was against the run of play when Goedeman slammed home from outside the box, into the top right corner of the net, after connecting to Jaedin Rhodes' headed pass.

The away team responded well with Tawanda Macheke narrowly wide on 23 minutes as Khanyisa Mayo came close at the other end.

Both teams were giving a good account of themselves as the half drew to a close, while both Mayo and Rhodes had good chances after the break as City looked the more energetic team.

Juniad Sait's 51st minute header was too high but Fielies made no mistake with his sweetly struck shot that flew into the back of the net, after the ball broke to him following a corner.

Allan was shown a straight red to make Swallows taks of turning this tie around even harder, but it wasn't all one-way traffic, with Macheke unlucky not to pull a goal back from a 62nd minute set-piece.

Isaacs then had a good shot blocked, while Bongani Sam should have done better with his effort on 87 minutes, although his evening was to get a whole lot worse as he too was shown a red card, on 93 minutes, having only been introduced as a second-half substitute, 10 minutes earlier.

The match ended with City on top and ultimately walking away with a well-dserved three points.