Cape Town City secured a 1-0 victory over Stellenbosch FC in an Absa Premiership match at the Athlone Stadium on Saturday evening.

The win elevated the Citizens to third place on the league standings, while the Stellies moved down to 12th place on the log.

The Citizens got off to a flying start as they broke the deadlock just six minutes into the Cape Derby.

Gift Links set-up Chris David, who hit the back of the net with a powerful low shot to make it 1-0 to City.

Stellies then pushed forward in numbers in search of the equalising goal, with Iqraam Rayners leading their attack.

However, Steve Barker's men could not seriously test Peter Leewenburgh in the City goal posts with the hosts' defence looking solid.

On the other hand, Boy De Jong was a busy man in the Stellenbosch goals as he was forced to deny Bradley Ralani and Kermit Erasmus.

The visitors were forced to make a change after Junior Awono went down injured and he was replaced by Mpho Matsi.

The score was 1-0 to City at the interval, with the hosts having dominated the first half.

The Citizens were also forced to make a change after the restart as their captain Thamsanqa Mkhize suffered an injury and was replaced by Craig Martin.

Diego Franco, who is a Mexican attacker, was introduced by Barker as Stellies looked to level matters.

The visitors upped the tempo and they came very close to equalising inside the final 20 minutes of the match.

Marc Van Heerden was very unlucky as his goal-bound free-kick was cleared off the goal-line by City midfielder Vukile Kewuti.

The momentum was with Stellenbosch in the closing stages of the game and Wassem Isaacs hit the upright with two minutes left.

Leewenburgh then produced a magnificent save to deny Leletu Skelem from close range to ensure that City ran out 1-0 winners over Stellenbosch on the night.

Cape Town City (1) 1 (David 6')

Stellenbosch 0

City: Leewenburgh, Mkhize (Martin 68'), Seedat, Cupido, Edmilson, Kewuti, David (Mthembu 70'), Makola, Ralani, Links, Erasmus (Nodada 82').

Stellenbosch: De Jong, Robertson (Isaacs 85'), Van Heerden, Gould, Mthethwa, Bergman, Awono (Matsi 44'), Zungu (Franco 69'), Moroole, Rayners, Skelem.