‘Dance’ pursues a higher order
CHIPPA United coach Dan “Dance” Malesela believes three more victories could just be enough for the team to cement a spot in the top eight of the Premier Soccer League this season.
The Chilli Boys have had a bittersweet league campaign this season having recorded only five wins, drawn five and lost seven matches from the 17 games played so far.
Despite their recent 2-0 loss to Bloemfontein Celtic on the weekend Chippa are placed eighth on the log with 20 points.
The Port Elizabeth side’s mandate this season is to finish higher than their sixth place closure of last season.
However, before the second leg of the league commenced Malesela said he was not bothered where the club would finish this season.
He said his main task at the moment was to move the team to a more favourable position on the log.
Now that he has successfully managed to break through to the top half of the log and landed Chippa in eighth place, the coach is still not content with the team’s current ranking.
“No, I am not happy about being in the top eight,” said Malesela.
“If you look at the difference between us and the teams below us it’s a small margin. We need to get at least three wins that will give us a big cushion and then we can focus on other things.
“Saying you are in the top eight can only count when the league ends.
“But whilst the league is running we need to still knuckle down and work hard to move away from all the clubs that are below us.
“When we do that automatically we are preparing ourselves to go up, depending on what the clubs above you are doing as well.
“So, we are hoping that we will get a few wins behind us,” he said.
Chippa’s next league fixture is against Golden Arrows, at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane on Friday night (kick-off 8pm).
The Chilli Boys have been faced with a big blow as they will go into the encounter without their key striker Rhulani Manzini, who was shown a straight red card for an offthe-ball headbutt on Celtic’s Alfred Ndengane.
The team will be happy though to welcome back captain and midfield commander Thamsanqa Sangweni, who was out in their previous game against Siwelele due to suspension.