Tembo wants home comforts

The first half of the Absa Premiership did not go according to Kaitano Tembo’s plan, even though his SuperSport United side ended the year in third, behind leaders Bidvest Wits and Orlando Pirates.

Matsatsantsa A Pitori have collected 23 points but the United coach had targeted more.

“We are seven points behind where we want to be. As much as we are third, we wanted to be a little higher in terms of points. If you look at the table, we are third but there are quite a number of teams within touching distance,” he told the Saturday Citizen.

“We are on the right track ... I feel we could have done better had we had a full squad (SuperSport lost several key players to injury) but we have to thank the players who stepped up. It shows they are not just squad members, they are here to compete. There was a time when we went on a slump, especially when we lost the MTN8 final to Cape Town City and we lost a lot of key players, which killed our momentum.

“I feel we could have done better, where we drew and could have won. If we had all those three points we could be in a different position but we have to appreciate what we have because we are in a better situation than some of the teams,” Tembo added.

SuperSport play their opening match of the year against Cape Town City tonight at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville. Tembo says if United are to position themselves as serious title contenders, they will need to win all of their home games.

“Home games are very important and in this second round we have more home games than we had in the first round.

“We need to capitalise on that and take advantage of playing at home and take all the points because they are crucial. One cannot afford to drop points,” Tembo said.