Heric moves to strengthen Chippa strike force for Bloemfontein Celtic clash

If Chippa United are to survive the relegation battle they will need to be sharper in front of goal, coach Vladislav Heric said.

The Serbian said he was pleased with his players’ general performance in their goalless draw against Black Leopards, saying they had displayed a greater hunger to score.

But it was the quality of finishing that let them down and his plan now was to reinforce his strike force ahead of the Bloemfontein Celtic fixture in Mdantsane on Tuesday (5pm) so that his players have a greater chance of converting the chances they create.

“We dominated 90 minutes but we missed so many chances and we couldn’t score goals,” the 54-year-old coach said.

“We were a better team today and we showed the hunger of scoring and winning games.

“The fighting spirit is there — the boys really did their best to try to win this game — but, unfortunately, again we are not scoring.

“So we have to think about reinforcing the strike force and we’ll see how we are going to do that as we have six days to prepare [for] the game against Bloemfontein Celtic and we have to find a way.

“I’m happy with the fact that we have so many balls in the box — much more than in the [Nedbank Cup] final — which actually shows that we did understand and that the training is coming through now.

“Hopefully, in the next game we are going to score more goals and once we start to score more goals it will be different,” he said.

The Chilli Boys have now gone two matches without scoring.

“I do believe it will be much better in the next game,” Heric said.

Three points against Leopards would have seen the Gqeberha side move out of the danger zone, but the point pushed them into 14th spot.

If they remain in that position they will survive.

Chippa are level on points with fellow relegation candidates TTM.

Meanwhile, Leopards coach Morgan Shivambu has not given up just yet on the team’s chances of survival in the league.

“Our last three games will not be easy, especially the next game as we are playing Kaizer Chiefs.

“Chiefs are also fighting to be in the top eight, so it’s not going to be an easy game.”