Bluebirds Ladies failed to take off once again in their second game of the Sasol Women’s League when they lost to Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Ladies.

The Beautiful Birds were defeated 2–1 at home at Alexandra Stadium, which in the words of their coach Malvin Khumalo was a much more decent scoreline compared to last year’s when they were walloped 5–0 at home and 7–0 away.

The Birds are winless going into their third match against an equally tricky Tuks Ladies.

Tshwane, led by their prolific striker and Banyana Banyana captain Refilwe Jane, showed what they were made of when they dominated the seemingly timid Birds.

The home side was not even able to string two passes together and Jane was a thorn in their flesh as she made intelligent on and off the ball runs. However, it was teammate Kgomotso Mashilwane who found the back of the net first with Jane being the supplier.

Former Birds star Lerato ‘Fabulous Gem’ Williams, and now part of the star-studded Tshwane outfit made her first appearance in the colours of her new team against her former colleagues.

Williams did not make such a huge impact as she is finding her feet but made her presence felt in the middle of the park.

Jane was finally awarded for her good play when she scored Tshwane’s second from a header. She could have easily scored a hat-trick if she had buried all of her chances.

Birds pulled one back when they were awarded a penalty after foul play in the box and veteran Lerato Makhanya made no mistake. The Birds had an opportunity to possibly level the scores when they were given a spot-kick on the edge of the box but Meisie Stewart made a mess of it.

Though not happy with the loss, Khumalo praised his girls. “There are games whose achievements are not measured by a win but by how much you minimised the damage that could have been caused, and this one was one of those games,” he said.

“We may not have matched them pound for pound but we certainly managed to minimise the damage if we can compare it to the previous season.”

His counterpart Tebogo Mokae was happy to have collected the three points and described Jane as the pillar of strength for her teammates as she guides and motivates them.