Baroka hoping for a ‘bonus’ win over Amakhosi

JOHANNESBURG: Having finally ended an awful 15-game winless streak in all competitions last weekend, relegation-threatened Baroka FC host Kaizer Chiefs tomorrow night hoping a “bonus” victory, in the words of co-coach Milton Dlamini, can boost their chances of surviving the PSL chop.

It wasn’t until last Saturday that the Limpopo outfit registered a 2-0 win against an equally struggling NFD side in FC Cape Town to dump them out of the Nedbank Cup.

More notably, it was Dlamini’s debut in the dugout following his appointment as a co-coach alongside Kgoloko Thobejane, who was himself recently restored to the post for the second time this season after Jacob Sakala, his assistant Edward Williams and technical director Mark Harrison were all suspended last month.

Visitors Chiefs, who are very much in the title race and have a chance to become log leaders if they beat Baroka at the Peter Mokaba Stadium and results elsewhere go in their favour, are chalk and cheese compared to FC Cape Town. But Dlamini this week said he believed the PSL rookies may have rediscovered their self-confidence with their recent positive outcome, although banking on upsetting Amakhosi could be a bit of a stretch.

“It was a huge boost for us going into such a big game. When you lose too many games, you lose your self-belief and you doubt your ability,” Dlamini said. “When the opportunity to win comes, you don’t really care who the opponents are. You just take the win because that is what it is. We scored two goals and missed a penalty. We could have easily won 4-0, and maybe we can feel that our goal-scoring problems are over. We need to take that to the Chiefs game.”

Every one of Baroka’s 10 remaining games count, and after facing Chiefs tomorrow night they travel to another championship contender in SuperSport United.

“Our concentration is getting points against the teams that are also trying to avoid relegation. Free State Stars, Bloemfontein Celtic and Highlands Park are still coming to our home ground and that is where we must make sure we get the crucial points. If we get a point or all three from these big teams, it will be a bonus.” Dlamini said.

Seems like maverick Thobejane’s co-coach has brought some sanity into the mix.