Chippa United coach Eric Tinkler has vowed to not give Mamelodi Sundowns any room to manoeuvre when they meet in an Absa Premiership fixture at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane on Saturday.
Tinkler wants to bag between 17-18 points before the end of the first round of the season, but the coach says in order to achieve that they need to start winning matches.
A win against the former Caf Champions could be just what the Chilli Boys need to turn their fortunes around in the league.
The Chilli Boys are on eight points from as many matches. That leaves Tinkler nine or 10 points away from his target.
“All the games are important and by the time we get to 15 games played we are hoping the points are going to be 17 or 18, somewhere there,” said Tinkler.
“So, what’s important is to start winning irrespective of who the opposition is, be it Sundowns or Kaizer Chiefs who we are playing immediately after this match.
“We need to collect points in every single game that we play and hopefully climb that table. That is the main objective.
“We don’t want to find ourselves come Christmas lying at the bottom and going on the mini-break still having all the pressure on your shoulders.
“So, we want to make sure that when we go to that December break that there is no pressure and everybody can enjoy the little break that they will have and come back refreshed to start the second round of the league.”
But the Brazilians have not lost a game so far in the league this season and they will want to leave the Buffalo City Metro with that record intact.
Tinkler is aware that the match will not be an easy one but the coach said he has a few tricks up his sleeve.
“You are always looking to find the weakness that they potentially have. I have watched all their recent games and from that we have analysed them. We have come up with a plan that could potentially get us the result,” he said.
“There is a lot of quality in Sundowns and they are able and more than capable of adapting their game.
“So, we need to be prepared. Obviously we want to take the game to them. It’s our home game we are not going to sit back and try and play on the counter. That is not going to be the strategy.
“We want to take the game to them, we want to go at them and we want to play attractive football.
“What we need to do is to ensure that we perform the way we performed in the second half against Orlando Pirates.”
The coach said his team’s first half performance against Pirates in the Telkom Knockout competition where they were beaten 1-0, was not very good.
However, despite the loss the coach said there were positives to take from the match.
“In the second half I think we dominated against Pirates. We created a lot of chances and probably deserved to get at least a point out of the game. There were many positives that we could take from the game so we need to take that into the game against Sundowns.”..