Polokwane City coach Phuti Mohafe looking to use Chippa United to bounce back to winning ways. BackpagePix
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POLOKWANE City will travel to Gqeberha this weekend looking to get back to winning ways against a Chippa United team that was the last one they beat before they went into the current slump of six winless matches.
Beaten 1-0 by Golden Arrows at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in a Betway Premiership tie on Wednesday night, the Limpopo outfit are eager to turn the tide and their coach Phuti Mohafe believes they can do it against the Chilli Boys.
Admittedly it won’t be easy, but their recent good run against Chippa is reason enough for the club to believe they can live up to their slogan and Rise and Shine.
“The records now don’t matter. The only thing that matters is the collection of points and winning the matches. We have got three out of three against them and I don’t think they will allow us to get four out of four. So, it is another team we have been struggling with, but we have turned the corner around them and they will not want us to be their hoodoo team,” Mohafe told media during the post match conference Wednesday night
"We are going to them with the mentality of winning not because we are their hoodoo team. But we are going there to fight; we are going there courageously; we are going there with the mentality to get maximum points. And if we get them, good, but if we don’t then it tells us that there’s something wrong with the mentality of the team.”
There was little wrong with City on Wednesday night as they played some good football and created numerous scoring chances to have beaten Arrows.
They were, however, let down by a defensive howler that saw Lebogang Nkaki passing the ball back to goalkeeper Manuel Saupunga whose attempt at a return-pass turned out to be a howler, the ball going directly to Knoox Motizwa.
Never one to wait for a second invitation to score, the Zimbabwean gleefully accepted the gift and lobbed over Sapunga from an awkward angle inside the box for the match's only goal.
The pain of that goal was evident on Mohafe’s face as he winced when he attempted to make sense of the loss: “It’s a defeat yes and it’s something that does not sit well with the technical team and the players themselves. Check on how we lost the match, it’s a disaster for us.
"But it’s an honest mistake. It was not deliberate. We conceded from the mistake, a costly mistake that is pushing us backwards. Now, we are six matches without a win. We were hoping to get one from this match but it was so unfortunate we conceded this way.
"Had we not conceded that way, we may have got something - a draw or a win. Because five minutes before that moment we were on top of them in terms of play position, box entrances, clearances and in terms of determination. We were so unfortunate to concede.”
With City now moving down the table to sixth place, Mohafe is worried that the hard work they put in during the first half of the season could be coming to naught.
“We are going backwards; but if you check from number three to number eight all those teams vying for third and fourth spots their points are very close to each other. But we did not do well by not getting maximum points or even a point tonight. We are slowly moving out of the race. But everything happens for a reason; this slump is for a reason and maybe the football gods will have pity on us.. It’s been long (since we won – back in January) and we want to make these people who are filling up the terraces here happy, they can’t keep going home with sore hearts.”
And Mohaffe wants Polokwane City to please their fans by bringing back maximum points from their trip to Chippa United – the team they beat when they last won a match back on January 26.