NFD relegation is looming large for struggling Cape sides

IT’S been a rough season for four of the five Cape National First Division clubs.

With two thirds of the season completed, Stellenbosch FC, who are unbeaten this year, are in third place on the 16-team standings and in prime position to qualifying for the promotional playoffs that will feature the second and third-placed teams from the NFD and the 15th team in the PSL.

These three sides will contest a mini-league playing each other home and away to decide who comes out on top and wins promotion or remain in the PSL for next season.

At the other end of the table, Santos, Milano United, FC Cape Town and Cape Town All Stars are in the bottom five, along with Magesi FC – and two of these sides will be relegated.

Fomer PSL champions Santos have struggled all season and have only won three times from 21 starts, while the other three haven’t covered themselves in glory and may yet end up losing their second-tier status. However, in the past few weeks Santos have shown a marked improvement, and the 1-0 victory over Magesi last weekend shifted the People’s Team off the bottom by one place, while pushing the losers to the foot of the table.

“I really believe we’ll beat the drop,” said Santos coach Tony de Nobrega. “There is no point dwelling on past results, our goal now is to beat teams around us and we did just that last time out and against Milano last month. So those three-pointers from our last four games improve our chances of escaping relegation.”

Milano, under head coach Boebie Solomons, are third bottom after back-to-back defeats and a mere two points above Santos. The men from Grassy Park boast the most losses (13) as well as the worst defensive record, having conceded 38 goals in 21 games. These unflattering stats could well come back to bite Solomons’ charges when the final sums are tallied.

FC Cape Town are fourth from bottom on 24 points, six ahead of the bottom two with nine games to play. The “African Beasts” of Parow need to win more than they lose to stay in the division, a scenario they’ve become accustomed to in recent times.

It seems the club suffers from the “one too many cooks” syndrome. The coach does his best from the dugout and then his assistant and team owner Errol Dicks barks non-stop orders as well, leading to confusion out in the middle.

All Stars have also amassed 24 points from a possible 63. but are winless from their last three starts.