Draw gives Bucks sliver of hope in survival fight

CHIPPA United are re-focusing their ambitions from avoiding being sucked into a relegation fight to chasing a top eight Absa Premiership finish‚ said coach Vladislav Heric after the weekend heroics at Soccer City.

The Eastern Cape-based side upset hosts Kaizer Chiefs with a 3-0 victory on Saturday to jump from 13th to seventh place in the standings and with four games to go reset their targets for the campaign.

But Heric‚ whose team next host second-from-bottom Ajax Cape Town on Sunday‚ says they will first have to do some psychological work with an elated playing squad.

“The very important point now is to keep the heads of my players cool which is going to be difficult after a very good result in an almost impossible task‚” he said.

“That will be job number one.” Chippa played two games in Gauteng last week with a 2-0 loss to league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria last Wednesday and then the shock victory over a hapless Chiefs.

“So you never know what can happen but I think we have the right now to say we’ve changed our focus from not wanting to slip into the relegation place to chasing a top eight place‚” the caretaker coach said. — MTHATHA Bucks assistant coach Sibusiso Mapompo believes their 2-2 draw against Richards Bay at Mthatha Stadium over the weekend has revived lost hope the team needs to fight in order to avoid relegation.

Bucks have been at the basement of the log-standings since the second round of the National First Division kicked off. They’ve won only four times and drew nine games with a staggering 13 losses.

Bucks now have 21 points while Richards Bay – who have won six games, drew 10 and lost 10 – have 28 points and they remain at 13th position on the log-standings.

“We’ll take the one point because of the situation we are in is not pleasing, but the teams above us are behind with six points,” said Mapompo.

“We scored in the last minute of the game, but looking at the way we played in the first half, it’s a bitter pill to swallow to come out with a draw.

“Because we created a lot of chances, especially in the first half, we managed to put them under pressure but we were just unfortunate to miss those chances.”

Former Bucks captain, Mapompo, said being in a must-win situation put them under a lot of pressure, but being able to manage Richards Bay’s counter-attacks relief.

“The visitors are in a good position on the log-standings so a draw was fine for them, because they have a lot of points, and we were desperate for points.

“We let ourselves down by not converting the chances we were getting, but now we have to work on that.”

Amathol’amnyama are going away to the NFD champions Highlands Park at Makhulong Stadium this coming weekend.

“We are going to a strong team – the champions and they have been hammering teams with 4-0 and even gave them a sense 6-0. But going to them without losing gives us hope and confidence we need.

“So we know that we can get something as we are going there with high confidence levels after a moraleboosting performance.”

Richards Bay coach, Jean Louis Losciuto said he analysed Bucks’ games and he knew they had to thread carefully if they were avoid a loss.

“It’s not a lot of teams that win on this pitch (Mthatha Stadium) but after the 95 minutes we committed a foul that resulted into a free-kick that cost us the win.

“But also the fighting spirit of Mthatha Bucks was good – playing offensive football and we know it’s the last chances for them to remain in the league and avoid relegation.”

The former Black Leopards coach said the stalemate was not a bad result for his charges as they were sitting in a comfortable position on the log-standings.

“After this game I was a bit disappointed because we could have won the game and go home with three points.

“We needed to be disciplined and focused because we all know how tough it is to play against a team that is at the bottom of the log-standings.”