Tembo’s used to living with the pressure

New SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo (above) subscribes to Indian poet Gajanan Muktibodh’s Pressure is Good poem, which reads: “Pressure is good, go with it for better fruits. Fortune is there for you.”

Tembo says it does not matter what position you hold in football, pressure will follow you like your own shadow. The mentor did not have an ideal start to his tenure as permanent Matsatsantsa a Pitori’s head coach after his side lost 2-0 to Benni McCarthy’s Cape Town City in the Mother City in their season- opener.

“It is pressure all the way because this game is about pressure and I can take it. With our job there is always pressure, I have been in charge for the past several months since I took over and it was also pressure then.

“For me it is pressure all the way, it does not matter where we are but at least now we are starting with a clean slate where we can always try and bounce back, whereas last season it was a bit difficult, the games were running out and we needed points and we couldn’t get them but eventually we came out okay,” said Tembo.

Last season SuperSport escaped from the jaws of relegation under Tembo’s guidance, and he says his side has since moved on from that “tough time” and are looking to re-establish Matsatsantsa as top contenders for silverware this season.

“I think we have passed that. If we look at our season towards the end, we only lost one game out of the seven we had left, which was against Polokwane City. The rest we won and drew. In Africa we lost two and won one, while drawing one as well.

He added: “We haven’t been doing badly and we can build on the last few games of last season but we did not get what we were looking for because we didn’t take our chances. We created those chances which at least I can say was positive.

“They had a few chances and they took those chances and unfortunately that is how the game is, but we will bounce back stronger,” said Tembo.