Tinkler wants a ‘Plan B’

MARITZBURG United have discovered a winning mentality under the tenure of Eric Tinkler.

They made it back to back home victories on Friday, getting the better of Amazulu in an entertaining Kwazulu-natal derby.

United come back from one goal down to snatch victory at the death. Judas Moseamedi was the hero of the day, netting the winner after Nazeer Allie restored parity.

Amazulu took the lead through Bandile Shandu’s own goal just before the interval.

Tinkler doesn’t want his troops to over-celebrate the victory because the job is far from done.

“Let us be realistic, we are still sitting at the bottom of the table. We’ve only have eight games to go. Our points tally at the moment is not good enough. We’ve go to try and look at the 27 to 28 point mark. The other thing I said to the players was ‘let us not go to the play-offs’. The only way we can do that is by collecting maximum points in each of our home games,” Tinkler said.

“It would have been far worse if we’d lost. Players feel it more than anyone else. Obviously it is their careers. Had we lost this game, mentally it was going to be massive challenge to them to raise the bar.

“They need to raise the bar because that’s how they win these games. They will now raise the bar. That will give us a slight edge. Our boys are fit. You could tell by looking at our tempo,” Tinkler explained.

Maritzburg are now looking to refine their away record under Tinkler. They have already suffered defeats to Wits and Cape Town City, and next week take on Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium.

“We also need to take the performances that we have at home to the away games. We’ve got a tough run coming up now. Obviously we got Chiefs away and then we got Mamelodi Sundowns here on (next week Tuesday). None of those are going to be easy. We’ve got to go in there with the belief that we can beat all of these teams,” he added.

Tinkler was at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban last night to assess Chiefs as they were taking on Highlands Park in a PSL tussle.

Maritzburg are still rooted at the foot of the table with 17 points after 22 games.

“It is going to be tough because Chiefs have a lot of qualities. Coach Ernst Middendorp knows this team well. He also knows our structure.