Chippa coach out to improve team’s log position
AS the first half of the Premier Soccer League season draws to a close with only one game remaining, Chippa United coach Dan Malesela’s aim is to improve his team’s position on the log.
The Chilli Boys play struggling Ajax Cape Town away tomorrow before they break for Christmas.
Chippa have endured a bittersweet first half of their league campaign this season.
After a good start to the season in winning their first two matches, the Port Elizabeth side struggled to find the winning combination, going seven games without a win.
They finally broke that winless streak, beating Kaizer Chiefs 3-1 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium early this month, but failed to keep the momentum and lost 1-0 to Polokwane City last week.
However, Chippa bounced back from that to beat Highlands Park 2-0 at East London’s Sisa Dukashe Stadium at the weekend.
“It has been a bit of a testing campaign, a challenging one, but we have set ourselves priorities.
“We now find ourselves on the other side of the log.
“The priority should be to move away from the bottom, not to think about chasing targets or about a position,” he said.
“We have had a slight change to our approach because in the beginning we were a bit confident that we would probably glide with the league. Now we have found ourselves in a bit of a slump, so we must look at where we are and what is reasonable.”
His first priority, he said, was moving away from the bottom of the log.
“As soon as that is done, we will move to another step.
“Do we want to consolidate or do we want to go further up? – We are taking it step by step,” Malesela said.
The Chilli Boys are now 10th on the log with 16 points from 13 games.