Maritzburg United keep focus ahead of Kaizer Chiefs grudge match

Veteran Maritzburg United defender Bryce Moon said keeping focus ahead of Wednesday’s clash against Polokwane City is not going to be easy‚ especially with Kaizer Chiefs looming on Saturday at home.

Maritzburg United appeared to be on the wrong end of the stick of refereeing decisions in their early-season 2-0 loss at FNB Stadium while more of the same occurred when they lost to the same opponents in the Telkom Knockout Cup on penalties‚ when they had a legitimate penalty shout disallowed.

While the focus will invariably shift to what happens at Harry Gwala Stadium on Saturday evening against Amakhosi‚ Moon said United cannot afford to take Polokwane City lightly.

“Polokwane City are doing very well. They’ve got some structure now and it’s not going to be an easy game for us‚ but we’ll also put up a good fight and go for the three points‚” Moon said.

“Games like the one we’ll have against Kaizer Chiefs are easy to motivate players for.

“Actually‚ you don’t even want to motivate the players because those are the kind of games they look forward to. It always good to play against a team like Chiefs in the league.”

While the majority of the early heavy lifting was done under the nomadic and temperamental German Ernst Middendorp‚ an eighth-placed Maritzburg makes life pretty easy for new coach Roger de Sa.

Having won four and drawn seven of their 15 matches‚ they are 11 points away from the 30-point safety net that will see them campaign in the Premier Soccer League next season.

They needed three less to survive last season‚ which included their miraculous last day escape that saw them beat Jomo Cosmos 3-1 and in the process‚ sinking their opponents to the First Division.

Moon is aware the second round will be far more fraught than the 2016 equivalent. Maritzburg collected the bulk of their 27 points last season in the second round.

“We don’t want to get too excited because the second half of the season is always harder‚” he said.

“Teams have signed players and they’re bolstering their playing stocks. They also now understand how the other teams are playing.

“We just need to keep focus and make sure our goal of finishing in the top eight remains intact.”

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport