Basie urges Hungry Lions to show hunger in promotion bid

Coach reckons race to win league is open

Hungry Lions coach Henry Basie has declared his side’s aspirations for promotion as he believes the race to reach the DStv Premiership is wide open.

The Motsepe Foundation Championship has reached its halfway mark and there’s not much separating the top five. Hungry Lions are in fifth place with 27 points, they are six points behind log leaders Polokwane City who have 33 points.

The Northern Cape side was boosted by an R3m package from their provincial government to help the club with operations costs and their bid to secure promotion to the top flight. Speaking to Sowetan this week, Basie made it clear that they are gunning for promotion, stressing his players need to have big match temperament.

“The race is wide open. It’ sa matter of us doing well in the last half of the season, the ambition is there to win the league, but obviously it will be very difficult and it’s a very tough target we have set for ourselves,” said Basie.

“We will play to our strengths and play our games as we plan. Now you need a team, you don’t need individuals. It’s that time when you need your experienced players to make sure that every game they play and get stuck in there.

It’s either you can lose it in your first five games or your last five games. So, it’s important now to get stuck in there. The players must have big game temperament, they must show up and have that hunger for the next 14 games or so.”

Tomorrow Lions will welcome JDR Stars at the Windhoek Draught Park (3.30pm), the stadium in Kimberley they have made a fortress. In the seven games they have played at home so far, they ’ ve won five and drew twice.

NFD fixtures (all times 3.30pm):

Today: Venda v Magesi, Thohoyandou ; NB La Masia v Black Leopards, Bidvest Stadium. Tomorrow: Polokwane City v Cape Town Spurs, Old Peter Mokaba; TTM v Platinum City Rovers, Thohoyandou ; Pretoria Univ v Uthongathi, ABSA Tuks Stadium; Hungry Lions v JDR Stars, Windhoek Draught Park . Sunday: All Stars v Pretoria Callies, Soshanguve Giant; Casric v Baroka, Solomon Mahlangu