Roger de Sa urges his Maritzburg players to pick themselves up after 4-1 drubbing

Maritzburg United coach Roger de Sa believes his players have the character to bounce back after conceding four goals to SuperSport United on Wednesday as they host Free State Stars at the weekend.

Maritzburg have now lost twice in a row after a five-match unbeaten run and missed out on a chance to move into the top eight.

They have also won just one home game in the league all season but De Sa believes the 4-1 loss at Atteridgeville could be a catalyst to a return to winning ways.

“It’s a tough one for us again‚ we have to lift ourselves up‚" said De Sa‚ who joined the club in December to replace Ernst Middendorp.

"We know what to expect from Free State Stars.

"I honestly believe that this bunch of players have got the character to bounce back and I think they will.

“We’ll see how it goes in training in the build up to the match.

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"One or two guys might come into the side as well.

"We’ll shake it up a bit and hopefully we’ll be strong again on Sunday.

"We will check the injuries first but there will definitely be one or two changes to the team.

"In certain areas we were a little disjointed and some guys didn’t come to the party.

"So we’ll have to reshuffle a bit and go back to what worked for us last week and the weeks before.”

De Sa made a spying trip to watch Stars playing last week and says he is impressed with what their new coach Serame Letsoaka has done with the side.

“From what I’ve seen of them they are a very hard running team‚ very man-to-man‚ very physical.

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"They don’t stop competing.

"They might lack big name players but they’ve got big hearts and they just give it their all.

"We expect that.

"It will probably be wet and muddy conditions because it hasn’t stopped raining in Maritzburg. But we have no doubt we can expect a real battle on our hands.

"For us these are the six pointer game.

"We got to take it out there and leave it all on the field.”

 - TMG Digital