Highlands Park would have avoided relegation if the club had fired Gordon Igesund earlier‚ says Thierry Mabobo

28 May 2017 - 17:15 By Njabulo Ngidi
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Gordon Igesund during the Absa Premiership match between Highlands Park and Bloemfontein Celtic at Makhulong Stadium on December 07, 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gordon Igesund during the Absa Premiership match between Highlands Park and Bloemfontein Celtic at Makhulong Stadium on December 07, 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images

Highlands Park interim coach Thierry Mabobo believes that if the club had sacked Gordon Igesund earlier they would have survived.

The Lions of the North were relegated after just one season in top flight football.

The club’s management were too hasty to fire Allan Freese but took their time with Igesund even though the results didn’t go their way.

Highlands sacked Freese‚ who had helped the club gain promotion from the National First Division‚ after just five games.

But the same management waited for 21 league games to sack Igesund.

In those 21 games‚ Highlands won just two matches.

“I would think so (that the club waited too long to act on Igesund). But who am I?

"Whether that’s true or not‚ that the change came late or whether if we still had Gordon here we would have won two games‚ you never know‚” Mabobo said.

“I still believe that we should have made the change early.

"This is a difficult question to answer because I don’t want to knock people.

"Those are people that I worked with and I hold them in high regard. But collecting five points in four games is a positive.”

Those five points in four games came during Mabobo and Les Grobler’s tenure.

During that period‚ Highlands moved from the bottom where they had spent the better part of this campaign.

Highlands had their fate in their hands going into the last game against Mamelodi Sundowns as they sat in 15th place.

The worse that could have happened was that they would be playing in the play-offs against Black Leopards and Stellenbosch FC.

But the Lions of the North played to a 2-2 draw with Sundowns while Baroka FC beat Ajax Cape Town.

Those results gave Baroka a second chance at salvation while Highlands were relegated.

“If we can keep this team‚ we are going to bounce back straight away because we are good enough not to be there‚” Mabobo said.

“We are a very good team.

"But whether the players will want to go down with us is another ball game.

"If the management helps us to keep this team‚ then it will be a much better job for us.

"We will have a meeting with management on Monday to assess the situation and table a way forward.

"We will try to convince players to stay because with them and a proper pre-season‚ we will be back in the PSL soon.

"With them we stand a very‚ very big chance of coming back immediately.”

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport

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