Maritzburg United suffered their 14th league defeat of the 2018/19 season following a 1-0 loss to Highlands Park on Saturday afternoon.
After two wins in their last four matches prior to Saturday's encounter away to Highlands Park, the Team of Choice appeared to be turning the corner.
However, they still find themselves in deep trouble with only four league matches to play before the end of the season.
For them to beat the relegation drop, they will no doubt have to win their remaining matches, and hope teams in front of them drop points along the way.
As things stand, Eric Tinkler's side is four points behind Free State Stars, Baroka and Chippa United and a further two behind 12th-placed Black Leopards.
Tinkler's men showed resilience in the opening half of the encounter and gave nothing away in Tembisa.
The opening 30 minutes saw both sides offer little going forward. Perhaps because there was just too much at stake for both side, especially Maritzburg, who knew that nothing less than three points would be good enough.
Highlands Park took the game to the visitors soon after the half-hour mark with Sabelo Nyembe testing Richard Ofori through a deflected shot off Rushine De Reuck.
However, Ofori did well to prevent the ball from crossing the line, much to the relief of Tinkler and his technical team.
Goalkeeper Marlon Heugh had to come to the rescue of Highlands Park five minutes before the interval, as he denied Maritzburg United what would have been a beautiful goal.
The visitors were on the ascendency after the restart, but it was Highlands Park who nearly broke the deadlock through Peter Shalulile after 67 minutes.
The Namibia international showed some good footwork inside the box but fired wide when everyone expected him to score.
Shalulile would redeem himself as he fired past Ofori with a fierce shot from outside the box with 13 minutes to play.
Maritzburg United tried to launch a comeback and rescue a point but it wasn't to be as Highlands Park bagged all the points on offer.
Elsewhere, Polokwane City held SuperSport United to a goalless draw and consequently, leapfrogged Cape Town City into position four on the PSL log.
Matsatsantsa needed to win to keep their slim title hopes alive, but their failure to push harder and be clinical in front of goal saw them fall 10 points behind log leaders Orlando Pirates.
It was a rather dull draw considering the quality that both sides have at their disposal, and the fans would feel robbed that neither side managed to hit the back of the net.
