DERAILED AJAX
Back to drawining board for Marlin after so near yet so far situation
Ajax Cape Town interim coach Calvin Marlin has chalked up their failure to win the promotion play-offs to the squad’s inexperience.
Having finished the GladAfrica Championship campaign level with champions Swallows on 57 points, lower goal difference condemned Ajax to the play-offs, along with Black Leopards, who’d finished 15th in the Premiership and prevailed ahead of them and Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM).
It was Friday’s 2-0 defeat to Leopards in what was their last match in the round-robin tournament that proved the painful end of the road for Ajax.
The win put Leopards on nine points, with a game to spare, while Ajax finished three points adrift.
Lidoda Duvha were to host TTM at FNB Stadium on Monday (3pm).
Marlin, who replaced Dutch mentor Andries Ulderink on the last day of January as a caretaker coach, has attributed their sterile play-offs campaign to a lack of tried-and-tested players in the team, feeling they were overly reliant on 35-yearold striker Eleazar Rodgers, who netted four goals in four games through the round-robin contest.
“We have a lot of youngsters in our group.
“It’s a massive experience for them now going forward.
“I think we lacked a bit of quality in certain areas, especially in the striking department where we were relying on
Eleazar at 35, 36, to get us goals,’’ said Marlin.
“The youngsters that come on, you can see the inconsistency in the performances ... one day it’s up, one day it’s down.
“So that’s what you get when you have a lot of youngsters in your group.’’
Marlin, a retired goalkeeper who played for the club and also for the likes of Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United, among others, in his heyday, sounded a bit pessimistic about keeping his job.
“We all don’t know what we’ll do next season.
“We might not be together, I mean we have to see everybody’s future now.
“We’ve got no idea what will happen in the future,’’ said Marlin.