Fresh buzz in the Bees camp for Downs test

EC BEES chief executive Thembelani Gantsho says they have been hard at work preparing for their Nedbank Cup clash against Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria yesterday.

Gantsho said given the fact that they were playing the former African champions gave their players a platform to showcase their talents, and also at the same time showcase what the Bees were all about.

“If you go to our training session you’ll see how ready and hungry these boys are, the energy they have and the excitement, and they all want to be in the starting 11.

“And from the players’ perspective, we’ve experienced players also like Bafana Dlamini who have been with Chippa United and Mthatha Bucks.

“Siphe-Sihle Mtule who’s also been at Chippa and Royal Eagles, so we are sorted, because they will guide our youngsters as they have played topflight football – so they know what it takes to play a tournament of this magnitude.

“So they give that oomph because Bees is a young team and also that Sundowns is giving so much attention,” said Gantsho.

He said in terms of off-the-pitch preparations things have not been as smooth-sailing as he imagined them to be – but nothing would stand in their way to glory.

“I think we’ve had more challenges than we anticipated, and we still need the team to be inspired. So for a team that has only T-shirts it’s hard because we not only represent the team there but the entire province.

“Moreso the Buffalo City Municipality region, but we have not had any sort of sponsorship besides the one BCM Municipality promised us but I also have not seen it.

“Business have an opportunity to market their services and get a lot of mileage, because it might rain there and we would wear our casual clothes and because we don’t have anything else but those T-shirts.

“So we won’t give a nice image of the province and the municipality and that could give an impression that there’s something wrong with BCM and the province.”

Gantsho said those challenges would not derail the team’s mission which is to develop players and they encounter against Sundowns had many advantages.

“All we want to do is to put Buffalo City on the map of football circles in the country and we want to be the hope of young aspiring talents in the province.

“So they could take up football as a career and they could be looking at Bees as a stepping-stone to a pro career.

“And we won’t get distracted by anything; we’ll continue to push the limit of our abilities as a team.

“These games gives us opportunities to market the team.”

Gantsho said one of the team’s mandates was to minimise drug addiction. “The boys after training are too tired to go anywhere they just sleep, whereas their friends have energy to roam around,” he said.