Johannesburg - Phuti Mohafe, the Polokwane City coach, admits that it would not help to lament what could have been and has got his players to look on the bright side as they strive to earn promotion back to the DSTV Premiership.
The Limpopo outfit are third in the second tier Motsepe Foundation League going into the final match of the season on Sunday when they host Pretoria Callies at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium.
City, relegated to the lower division in the 2019/20 season, trail leaders Cape Town Spurs by two points and are one behind second-placed Casric Stars.
Yet such was their flying start to the campaign that City could have wrapped up promotion by now, but a poor second half of the season proved to be their undoing.
“Of course it is disappointing that we let things go out of our hands. And one of the reasons was that we really struggled with injuries. We did not have the core of the team for a significant part of the second half of the season and that led to us losing form. When the key players returned, it also took us a while to find the consistency that we had in the earlier part of the season.”
That though is water under the bridge and Mohafe is just pleased that they are still in with a fighting chance for promotion with one match to go.
“We are ready for the fight,” he said Friday. “And Callies is not the team we are fighting for, they are just in the way of our battle with those other two teams above us on the table. We believe that our promotion is in our hands. All we have to do is win our match on Sunday and then see what happens.”
Mohafe says they will not be bothering themselves about what is happening between Spurs and the University of Pretoria as well as the Casric clash away to All Stars.
“We can’t be thinking about what the other teams are doing, at least not before our match or even during it. We just have to focus on beating Callies and we will then check the other results after our final whistle.”
For City to gain automatic promotion, they will have to win their match and hope that the other two sides drop points in theirs.
It is a tall ask, but victory for City should not be that hard to muster given their impressive home record that has guaranteed them a promotion play-off spot.
“We have the advantage of playing this final match at home and we intend to use it. We have won about 12 matches in Polokwane so we are confident.”
Mohafe will be looking to the talismanic skipper and loyal servant of the club Puleng Marema – previously Puleng Tlolane – to guide the side to victory.
The attacker, who has been capped twice at Bafana Bafana level, expressed his desire to see City back in the elite league. He remained their player upon relegation despite receiving numerous offers to stay in the Premiership.
“Every other player that we got relegated with left, but I chose to stay because I felt loyal and that I had an obligation to fight for the team to get back up to the Premiership,” he explained. “The first and second seasons in this division were very tough, but now for the third time we have a chance.”
They have a chance indeed. The question is whether the promotion will come automatically or via the play-offs.
@Tshiliboy
IOL Sport