Julio Leal wants his Pirates to make their home ground, Orlando stadium, such an intimidating venue that visiting teams are beaten even before a ball is kicked.

Pirates are unbeaten there and on Saturday they host Mamelodi Sundowns in an Absa Premiership game.

"We must be unbeatable at our own ground," said coach Leal.

Bucs have lost twice this season, to Maritzburg United and Kaizer Chiefs, but both have been away games. They have also won on the road, beating Black Leopards 2-0.

Leal wants victory to be a certainty at home. He said yesterday that the Fortress Pirates idea was backed up by statistics from last season. League runners-up Ajax Cape Town and Bloem Celtic each lost only once at home. For Ajax, Cape Town stadium was a fortress, as was Seisa Rambodu for Celtic.

Pirates, the league champions, lost twice at home last season - to Chiefs and relegated club Mpumalanga Black Aces. Pirates will use Soccer City for a home match against Amakhosi this season, but the rest of their home games will be at Orlando stadium.

They have collected the full six points from Platinum Stars (1-0) and Santos (1-0) at Orlando.

Leal believes they can extend the run to a third home win on Saturday because they know Sundowns well.

"[That knowledge] helps our confidence especially since we have played them twice [in the MTN8] already this season and those matches were physical and extremely tactical," said Leal.

But the home record will be hard without strikers Thulasizwe Mbuyane and Benni McCarthy, who are doubtful because of injuries. Bongani Ndulula has also not trained with the team this week because of family commitments.

"Mbuyane was my first option in that position, but it doesn't look like he will recover in time. Benni just started training and still needs to pass a fitness test," said Leal.

Last season, Pirates and Sundowns met twice in the league and in the Nedbank Cup, with Pirates winning all three. Leal said he wouldn't read much into that.