Cape Town City will be hoping to return to winning ways when they travel to Maritzburg United in the Absa Premiership on Saturday evening, writes DYLAN APPOLIS.
CT City and Maritzburg have only met thrice before with the last meeting between the sides ending in a thrilling 4-2 victory for the Team of Choice at Cape Town Stadium on 5 December 2017.
The Citizens will want to redeem themselves after extending their winless run in all competitions to three matches after suffering a narrow 1-0 home defeat to Golden Arrows through a solitary goal by Lerato Lamola on Wednesday.
They are currently placed sixth on the log with 34 point after claiming 10 wins and four draws from 25 matches in the league.
City coach Benni McCarthy said: “As long as I don’t relegate the team‚ I think I’ve done a good job in my first season.”
“But we also don’t want to be satisfied with seventh or eighth place.
“We want to push on and we feel there is still second‚ third‚ fourth place up for grabs.
“I want to look at going for the highest possible position‚ which is second.
“We’ve got tough games coming up but I think it’s possible with the players that are coming back and I’m going to try and use the best and most experienced players that we possibly can to get us there.”
Meanwhile, the Team of Choice suffered a defeat at the hands of defending champions Bidvest Wits when they went down by 2-1 at the Bidvest Stadium on Tuesday.
The defeat meant that Maritzburg have fallen out of the title race, but are still set for their best ever finish in the PSL, should they maintain their for during the final five matches remaining in the campaign.
The Team of Choice currently occupy fifth place in the league standings with 38 points, having claimed 10 wins and eight draws from 25 matches so far.
Maritzburg coach Fadlu Davids said: “As I told the players, we’ve been getting praise, but we have to set the next goal, go to the next step, not just be happy with where we are.
“But of course it’s great that we are in the hat for the semis, anything can happen in football.”
The daunting atmosphere at the Harry Gwala Stadium has been the undoing of many opposition with SuperSport United the only team who managed to walk away with maximum points there this year.
Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix