EC Bees and PE Stars to battle it out for second spot
THE battle for second position in the third-tier ABC Motsepe League continues when No 2, EC Bees, host third-placed PE Stars at the Bhisho Stadium tomorrow afternoon.
While Tornado have already secured a National First Division spot in the playoffs from June 4-9, other teams are still fighting to finish in better log positions.
At the moment, the Mdantsanebased outfit are at the summit of the table with 70 points, while secondplaced EC Bees have 47 points and PE Stars 42. If the PE-based outfit fails to secure three points against Bees, the Bhisho-based “Crazy Gang” will finish in second spot.
Bees coach Chippa Njedu has been lamenting his primary concern was grooming his U19 players for next season, so that he can have a pool of players to choose from in order to compete for the league title.
“There’s no pressure as such but we just have to maintain our position at number two with our younger team because we believe that would help us a lot next season.
“We played a friendly against Tornado this week where we also played our younger players but we lost 2-1.
“I’m not worried about the end result because they are getting the experience I want them to have.
“I didn’t play the first team players because that’s another way of keeping them injury-free and it’s going to be easier for the young players as time goes by because they are collecting good experience,” said Njedu.
During the 2017-18 third-tier league season Bees have played only once against Stars. The two sides met at the Saints Field in Port Elizabeth with the game ending in a 1-1 draw.
“They owe us three points because when we went to them, we couldn’t get a win, so they need to pay us back those points.
“There’s nothing more important to us than keeping this position so we have to win this home game.
“Next week, we are playing our neighbours Try Again and we are not expecting much of a challenge from them. They might come at us but we are prepared for anything right now,” said Njedu.
Bees achieved a milestone this season when they managed to reach the second stage in the Nedbank Cup last 16.
In the last 32 of the cup competition, Bees met a Limpopo-based SAB league side, Mariveni United and beat them 3-1 at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium.
Bees then proceeded to meet ABSA Premiership log-leaders Mamelodi Sundowns and stunned the country with a good performance after leading 1-0 throughout the entire first half. Downs only managed to get two goals after the break to avoid an embarrassing exit in the lucrative tournament.
Other fixtures: Bizana Pondo Chiefs v City Lads (Mqeshwa Sports Fields, Bizana), Future Tigers v Try Again (Ginsberg Field), Highbury v Tornado (NMU, South Campus, PE), Lion City vs Swartkops Valley United Brothers (NU 2 Stadium, Motherwell), Matta Milan vs Sibanye (Ngumbela Stadium, Idutywa).