Chippa have to hit their straps, warns Tinkler

Chippa United coach Eric Tinkler will be hoping to turn his team’s fortunes around by getting back on the winning trail in the Absa Premiership on Tuesday evening.

The Chilli Boys have back-to-back league fixtures scheduled for this week.

On Tuesday, they are away to Maritzburg United at the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg (7.30pm) and host AmaZulu at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Friday night (8pm).

The former SuperSport United coach, who started his stint with the Port Elizabethbased side in August, has overseen three defeats, two draws and two victories in seven league matches.

Chippa United are in 13th position on the Absa Premiership log and have gone without a win in three consecutive league games.

Their most recent result was a goalless draw against Kaizer Chiefs and, therefore, Tinkler will be aware that club boss Siviwe Mpengesi might run out of patience.

Mpengesi is known for having a trigger-happy finger when it comes to the hiring and firing of coaches.

Asked to comment on his performance at Chippa, Tinkler said: “We deserve to have collected more points than what we did when I look at all the games. I think the majority of them we dominated. I think [playing] Highlands Park away from home was our worst performance.

“I don’t think we put on any bad performances in all three other games. I think we dominated against Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates and we try and take the positives from that.

“The chances we created, we didn’t turn into goals, that is the harsh reality and unfortunately as a coach I can’t score the goals, it’s the players who have to score the goals.

“The chances were there for us to win those matches and unfortunately we did not put the ball into the back of the net.

“But we keep on working harder in training to try and improve in that area. You try to keep the confidence and morale going,” he said.

The coach said he used the 10-day international break to fine-tune his team.

Chippa landed in Maritzburg on Sunday and Tinkler said the early arrival would help his team acclimatise.

“The wind blows like crazy in PE and there the humidity is a bit higher. It worked for us when we played Kaizer Chiefs and we thought we should do it [arrive early] again for this game against Maritzburg.

“Our next two games are massive. We need to ensure that we go there and collect some points and start moving up the table,” Tinkler said.