‘Magic man’ who saved Highlands

Sy Lerman

Little wonder the Highlands Park administration is hailing Owen Da Gama as “the magic man”.

Not only have Highlands set up a NFD record of 18 consecutive unbeaten games – 15 victories and three draws – since the amiable, articulate Da Gama took over the reigns of coach, but he has helped achieve this feat after the club had made a miserable start to the current season by winning only one of their six opening fixtures.

And coming with this remarkable change in fortunes is the fact that with a 15-point advantage at the top of the NFD log, Highlands are effectively certain to regain early promotion to the PSL’s Premier League and could complete the job this weekend in the game against Tshakhuma in Venda.

Seeking a speedy return to the Premier League after last season’s relegation of the one-time giants of local soccer, Highlands stuttered through three demoralising, successive defeats and instead found themselves floundering in the middle of the NFD table.

Enter former SA Under-23 and Bafana caretaker coach Da Gama after Highlands had taken the emergency decision to change the coaching staff in mid-stream – with an amazing transformation immediately put in place.

“I certainly don’t want to take all the credit for this change,” says the modest former Moroka Swallows and Irish League goal-scoring star. “Highlands had a squad of players capable of doing the job at hand before I took over. Perhaps I just managed to insert a degree of calm, composure and confidence into the players.”

“Certainly,” he added, “I was not thinking of setting records and extending a long, unbeaten run. It’s a case of concentrating on one game at a time and remaining aware of the saying that success and failure can indeed be twin imposters, with the one replacing the other unexpectedly at any given moment”.