Polokwane cannot give Pirates space

After fighting hard but failing to get anything from the Premiership clash with Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend‚ Polokwane City coach Bernard Molekwa is bracing himself for a tough match against a rejuvenated Orlando Pirates at Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

Molekwa‚ though‚ believes his charges have what it takes to bring down Pirates who have started 2018 with two 3-1 victories over Baroka FC and Mamelodi Sundowns.

“We know it’s not going to be easy against Pirates‚” said Molekwa. “We believe that in each game, we have to tighten our defence. It’s been the difference this season because going forward, we score a lot of goals. We even boast having the league’s top scorer Rama [Rodney Ramagalela] with nine goals.”

Polokwane were far from outplayed by Chiefs when they lost 2-1, but Molekwa was not happy with their defending after they conceded another two goals following their 3-2 win over log-leaders Sundowns. “Conceding four goals in two games is a huge, worrying factor‚” he said.

While Polokwane have banged in 18 goals in 16 league matches, their leaking of goals has let them down and is the chief reason they are in 11th spot on the log.

Only Polokwane neighbours Baroka have conceded more (22)‚ with Molekwa’s team on 21, the same number as relegationthreatened AmaZulu and Ajax Cape Town.

Molekwa‚ whose team have drawn amateurs Ubuntu CPT in the first round of the Nedbank Cup, emphasised that defending had to start up front.

He was disappointed that his team had let Chiefs equalise from a corner kick.

“You can’t say that was a defensive mistake because we had everyone defending the corner. We have to improve our defending against Pirates because they have been scoring a lot of goals.”