Durban — The highlight of this weekend’s fixture list will see Stellenbosch FC and Cape Town City going head-to-head in a Cape derby at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
Though far from being the most technically adept team in the South African top-flight, Stellenbosch FC are able to compete against any side, and even beat them on a good day. They proved this by downing Sundowns 3-0 towards the tail end of last season due to solid structure and organisation in their play.
Though both sides are not at their best currently, Stellies have the upper hand heading into their derby against neighbours City who have lost three out of their four league games so far this season. Stellies are unbeaten in 11 games, dating back to last season.
“We have principles that we want to apply. We want to become a hard team to play against. We don’t want to allow the opposition a chance to have time and space. Once you become a team that is hard to beat, it lays the foundation to go on and win football games,” said coach Steve Barker.
After starting the season with draws against Marumo Gallants and Orlando Pirates, Stellies kick-started their season with an impressive 3-1 win over Royal AM last weekend.
“I thought we were unlucky to have not beaten Pirates, especially due to our domination. With a bit of luck, a win in that game could have given us seven points. It was important for us to beat Royal AM at home and it’s also important for us to show consistency in the next games. It’s not easy to win back-to-back games but if you do, it’s a bonus and improves your position on the log table. If you gain eight points from four games, it would represent a good start to the season,” said Barker.
Stellies have been able to maintain a competitive brand of football following an exodus of a few former key first team players including Zitha Kwinika, Stanley Dimgba and Ashley du Preez. Barker credits this to the thorough planning which goes on behind the scenes at his club.
“Our planning for this season started from way back. It was planned that we wanted to refresh the squad. We are glad to have brought in players who fitted into the culture of the team. Everyone has fitted in. With the quality of our MDC side, we have shown things are no fluke. Antonio Van Wyk has added quality. Oswin Andries also came in and earned a Man of the Match performance while also scoring his first PSL goal,” said Barker.
IOL Sport
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