Eagles soar to third place
Captain says they’ll honour Roger
Royal Eagles have won all their four matches since the passing of their coach Roger Sikhakhane early last month. Eagles captain Philani Cele, 27, has emphasised that their aim was to honour the late mentor by gaining promotion. It is interim coach Sazi Ngubane who has propelled the Pietermaritzburg-based side to four wins in a row after losing Sikhakhane.
“All we do, we do it for coach Roger. It had always been his dream to lead the team to promotion and now that job must be completed by us. We will do it… it’s a promise,’’ Cele told Sowetan yesterday.
It’s four wins against Mbombela United, Ajax Cape Town, Jomo Cosmos and Witbank Spurs on a trot that has seen Eagles move to position three in the National First Division (NFD) standings. Cele, a former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder, has urged the club’s management to keep faith in Ngubane and his assistant Bafana Nhlapo, who’s also the goalkeeper trainer. The Eagles skipper feels the current technical team was capable of guiding them to win promotion.
“My wish is that we continue with these guys [Ngubane and Nhlapo] until the end of the season at least. We, as players, understand them very well and they are doing what coach Roger was doing. A new coach would spoil everything for us… our rhythm,’’ noted Cele, who hails from KwaMashu in Durbanl. Despite their desire to respect Sikhakhane, Cele thinks their resurgence has also been motivated by numerous meetings they have had with the club’s bosses, the Mpisane family.
“The owners of this club have been great to us for years but we’ve been letting them down. The chairman [S’bu Mpisane] always motivates us. “We have been having crunch meetings with them and now those meetings are bearing fruit,” Cele said. “The meetings are always about inspiring us and reminding us that we need to take the team to the Premier Soccer League.”
NFD results
Ubuntu 1, Kings 1; Uthongathi
1, Cosmos 0; Stellenbosch 0; Umoya 0; Amatuks 1, Richards Bay 2; Mbombela 6, Maccabi 2; Sporting 0, Galaxy 1; Spurs 0, Eagles 4; Ajax 2, Tshakhuma 1