Chippa must halt the slide
Tinkler admits his men must collect points to move away from danger
Chippa United coach Eric Tinkler will be hoping to turn his team’s fortunes around by getting back on the winning trail in the Absa Premiership on Tuesday evening.
The Chilli Boys have back to back games this week. On Tuesday they are away to Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium (7.30pm) and soon after host AmaZulu at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Friday (8pm).
Tinkler joined the Port Elizabeth-based side in August to replace Dan Malesela, who had been axed only three matches into the new season.
The former SuperSport United coach has been in charge of seven league matches since of which there have been three defeats, two draws and two victories.
The team are in 13th position on the log and have been without a win in three consecutive league games so far with their most recent result being a goalless draw against Kaizer Chiefs and Tinkler will be aware that club boss Siviwe Mpengesi’s might run out of patience.
Mpengesi is known for having a trigger-happy finger when it comes to the hiring and firing of coaches but he has held back on Tinkler so far.
Asked to comment on his performance at Chippa, Tinkler told TruFM: “We deserve to have collected more points than what we did when I look at all the games.
“I think the majority of them we dominated. I think [playing] Highlands Parks away from home was our worst performance. I don’t think we put on any bad performances in all three other games.
“I think we dominated against Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates and we try and take the positives from that.
“The chances we created, we didn’t turn into goals that is the harsh reality and unfortunately as a coach I can’t score the goals, it’s the players who have to score the goals.
“The chances were there for us to win those matches and unfortunately we did not put the ball at the back of the net. But we keep on working harder in that at training to try and improve in that area.
“You try to keep the confidence and morale going,” he said.
The coach said he used the 10day international break to finetune his team.
Chippa landed in Maritzburg on Sunday and Tinkler says the early arrival will help his team acclimatise.
“The wind blows like crazy in PE and there the humidity is a bit higher.
“It worked for us when we played Kaizer Chiefs and we thought we should do it again for this game against Maritzburg,” he said.
“Our next two games are massive. None of the games are going to be easy and we need to ensure that we go there and collect some points and start moving up the table.”