Williams in bid to boost team-mates
With just a point separating SuperSport United and 15th-placed Ajax Cape Town with just three games left, the senior players need to step up and carry the team through the rest of the season – that is message from United goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
“We play a vital role, we have a lot of experience and we have to help the youngsters. There are guys with a lot of experience and they know what to do,” Williams told Phakaaathi.
In the past five Absa Premiership seasons, SuperSport United have averaged 37 goals. This season so far they have managed a modest tally of 20 goals – a big cause for concern.
“It is clear that the challenge is for us to score goals. We have never been a club that has struggled to score goals. In the eight seasons that I have been at the club we have never failed to score consistently and at the moment that is something we need to focus on,” he said.
“I need to do my job which is to not concede and I think myself as well as the defenders have managed to play our part because we have not conceded that many goals in the last few games. That is all that we can do, I can’t go up there and score goals. We need to keep encouraging the forwards to go and get the goals,” he added.
While scoring goals is the primary job of strikers, goalkeepers do, although not so often, nick a goal for themselves. Given the chance to score a goal in the dying moments of the game, he wouldn’t mind running upfield to try his luck.
“It would be great if it happened in the last game of the season,” he quipped.
“But look, we have more than capable players up front who can score goals at any given time. It is a matter of just getting a few goals and the confidence will come back.”
Some say the reason why SuperSport find themselves right at the bottom owes much to their their participation in the 2017 Caf Confederation Cup where after a long and tiring journey they lost to TP Mazembe in the final. However, Williams refuses to single out the Confederation Cup as the reason for the team’s downfall and insists there is no feeling of regret among the players.
“Everyone wants to win the big cups but we were just unlucky. I can’t blame the Confederation Cup for our league form because it is still the same team that went all the way. Then where did it really go wrong? “We lost key players, I dislocated my shoulder the following day after the final and Bradley Grobler was injured. We lost Jeremy Brockie to Mamelodi Sundowns and those have been key players for the club in the past three years or so.
“That for me was the turning point. Although I am back, Jeremy is gone and Bradley is out for the season. The new guys have to step up now and lead the team forward,” he said.
How often do we see a benched goalkeeper run towards his colleague to celebrate on the back of a great performance? Well, goalkeepers are historically the least substituted players in the game, which begs the question – does the other player sit and sulk while the No 1 choice plays game after game?
SuperSport’s second-choice ‘keeper is Reyaad Pieterse, whom Williams refers to as his long-time friend not his rival.
“We have a wonderful relationship. I have known him for the past 12 years or so and we competed against each other in the national Under-13 right up to the first team and now we are partners.”