Ajax coach targets last remaining two home games for Top8 finish

Stanley Menzo has warned his Ajax Cape Town players to “keep switched on” as they prepare to host Bloemfontein Celtic at the Athlone Stadium in the Absa Premiership on Saturday night (kickoff: 8.15pm).

Ajax are closing in on a top eight place‚ something that might have seemed fanciful earlier in the campaign when it took them 10 games to win a match in the league.

Aside from Celtic‚ Ajax also have a home game against Baroka FC on the final day of the campaign and must travel to Orlando Pirates next Wednesday for what could be a crucial top-half clash.

Ajax currently occupy eighth on goal-difference from Pirates (with a game in hand) and Lamontville Golden Arrows‚ and Celtic at home is a fixture that has in the past been kind to them.

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“We have to win our home games – if we do that and draw against Pirates we are in the top eight‚” Menzo said on Friday.

Ajax were superb in claiming a 3-0 win in Bloemfontein in December‚ one of their best performances of the season‚ and Menzo expects more of the same.

“We played very well in Bloemfontein‚ but we expect them to come at us again. The team is doing very well at the moment‚” he said.

“Celtic have a bad record in Cape Town but no two games are the same.”

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Celtic have a single victory in 16 visits to Ajax‚ which happened to be in their very first in 1999. It has been 18 years of disappointment since then.

Ajax will be without their trio of Under-20 players who have headed to the World Cup in South Korea‚ including the hugely influential Grant Margeman‚ but also Shane Saralina‚ who has started recently‚ and Masilake Phohlongo.

Menzo said the club are happy to see them go to the global showpiece event.

“We couldn’t deny Margeman the chance to play at the World Cup. I missed out on that opportunity because of injury‚” the Dutch coach‚ and former Ajax Amsterdam goalkeeping legend‚ said.

• Bloemfontein Celtic caretaker coach Seema confident of survival Bloemfontein Celtic coach Lehlohonolo Seema is confident his club will avoid the drop even if they have drawn their last four games and still sit precariously just above the relegation zone in the Premier Soccer League. 

“We are very proud of the three players that will play at the World Cup.”

Celtic are still in a relegation battle after four draws in succession‚ the latest a 0-0 stalemate with Pirates on Wednesday‚ but caretaker-coach Lehlohonolo Seema said he was confident they would survive.

“Our fate is in our own hands‚” Seema said. “I’m positive we’ll fight right up to the end and that we’ll be staying up.

“We showed that against Pirates with our fighting spirit. You can see the hunger is there and we’ve told ourselves that as long as we don’t lose games we’ll get the necessary points.

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“If we can’t get the maximum‚ we need to see the one point from a draw as a plus.”

Seema admitted that a lack of potency was a worry after just 15 goals scored in 27 games in the league this campaign‚ comfortably the lowest in the division.

“I’m happy with the fight‚ the hunger‚ the determination and the commitment. There were many more positives in our performance against Pirates than negatives. But goal-scoring has been our problem all season‚” he said.

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport