Bafana winning streak continues

Bafana fans celebrated the team's fourth successive win

It is too late to take them to the final round of qualifying for 2010, but World Cup hosts South Africa have finally developed a winning habit.

They secured victory over Africa's top-ranked side, Cameroon, in Rustenburg on Wednesday, thanks to a late winner from Bernard Parker.

It is their fourth win in a row under coach Joel Santana.

Parker's strike took the score to 3-2 and Bafana Bafana held on to win the annual Mandela Challenge match, which honours the country's former president.

Earlier Teko Modise had scored twice to put the home side 2-0 up before the Indomitable Lions struck back to level the score through Daniel Ngom Kome and Somen Tchoyi.

The win allowed Santana to indulge an optimistic tone as he looked towards 2010.

"I believe the road to 2010 is on track," he told the South African Football Association (Safa) website.

"We played as a team and we are starting to show comfort on the ball.

Samuel Eto'o trained for Barcelona having failed to make his flight

"Yes we still have to work on certain areas but football is a continuous challenge."

The build up to the match was marred by a row over the absence of Cameroon's star striker Samuel Eto'o.

Cameroon coach Otto Pfister blamed Safa for failing to arrange his travel properly.

Safa hit back, claiming everything had been arranged and the player had simply failed to make his flight.

Geremi and Rigobert Song were also missing from the Indomitable Lions line up.