Chippa United captain Mark Mayambela expects Black Leopards to bring their A-game when the two PSL outfits collide at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in their league encounter on Saturday evening.
Mayambela said from what they’ve seen from the newly-promoted Leopards, it was not going to be an easy game to win, but they were still up for the task at hand.
“They fight a lot. I was looking at their game against Highlands Park [2-all draw]. They came back from 2-0 down to 2-2 in the dying minutes of the game, so that shows their determination.
“But of course even with us, we want to win that game at all costs and the mentality we approaching this game with is winning,” said Mayambela.
“And playing in East London where it’s always packed is always motivating, because the people there love the club and football itself – so we are expecting an interesting game.”The experienced midfielder admitted the Chilli Boys’ bad start was a setback in terms of gaining the momentum they needed in order to do well in the league.
“In football every game is different, but the most important thing for us as a team right now is to score the chances that we create. That will increase our chances of winning games.
“But it’s still early to look at the results of the two games and we can still recover somewhere else – starting with the game against Leopards.”
When the 2018-19 PSL transfer window period opened, the Chilli Boys signed 15 players, including Jabulani Shongwe from Bidvest Wits, former Ajax Cape Town attacking midfielder Ruzaigh Gamildien and Thabo Nthethe from Mamelodi Sundowns to mention a few.
And Mayambela was sure that his team was not having trouble gelling on the pitch, even though he admitted new players in a team take time to learn and utilise each other’s strengths.
“It’s always the case when you have new guys joining the squad, but everything is getting better everyday,” he said.He said the return of mentor Dan “Dance” Malesela after the club announced it would be parting ways with Serbian coach Vladislav Heric, who helped the club finish in the top 10 last season, meant they had to be professionals.
“Most of us are familiar with coach Dance, even some of the players that are new to the team have worked with him before. And he’s not a difficult coach to understand, even his football is simple.
“We are professional, and we have to adapt in every situation we find ourselves in, because coach Heric is a good coach.
“But you also have to respect the club’s decision and be professional about them and move forward as quickly as you can.
Mayambela added: “We are going to our slaughterhouse because that’s where we get most of our positive results.
“This season we are aiming to do well – better than we did last season, to finish as high as we can.”
Saturday’s match kicks off at 8pm at the Sisa Dukashe...