Swallows primed to face Bucs
Steve Komphela knows there will be hiccups in building a competitive Moroka Swallows, but with early positive results he has the confidence to say “so far, so good” for his project.
Swallows’ 1-0 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs at Dobsonville Stadium just more than a week ago left The Birds in sixth place in the Premiership with five wins, three draws and three defeats.
As the Christmas and Africa Cup of Nations break approaches, Komphela can be satisfied with his solid return to head coaching at Swallows from the start of the season after his technical role in co-coaching Mamelodi Sundowns.
Komphela will look for his team to notch a win in Tuesday’s tough encounter at Orlando Stadium against Orlando Pirates (7.30pm) — the Birds’ second successive Soweto derby — to improve on a recent run of just one victory from their past five league and cup matches.
The coach felt his team did everything but get a goal or two in their loss against Chiefs. He was asked how he feels his transition to head coaching has gone at Swallows.
“The data has just given us confirmation of the work and the investment we’ve had with the team, which then becomes our point of reference,” he said.
“What I mean about that is that out of [Swallows’ first] 10 matches [before meeting Chiefs] we were on 18 points. In our preseason strategic planning we said we needed to get two points per match. So for 10 matches we needed to be at 20 points — we were two short.
“So when you look at the amount of work that has been done in terms of performance, you can tick the box; the team comfort in playing attractive attacking football, you can also tick that box.
“Can you play a game that people want to buy a ticket and watch Moroka Swallows? With the utmost humility, I think you can tick that box.
“There had also been results [in the planning]. I don’t think we have lost away, it’s only that back home we need to be more ruthless,” he said.
Pirates are wallowing in ninth place with four wins, four draws and three defeats from 11 matches.