SO DESPERATE are Orlando Pirates to win tomorrow afternoon's Soweto derby against bitter rivals Kaizer Chiefs that they have turned on their former player, Thabang Lebese, and accused him of being a spy for the old enemy.

Lebese, who has played for both Chiefs and Pirates, attended a Pirates training session at Johannesburg stadium - uninvited - this week.

When he was spotted in the stands by the technical staff and the club's security personnel, the hapless former player was immediately ejected from the stadium.

Lebese, who is down on his luck and is a shadow of the rich and famous star who dominated the front and the back pages of newspapers in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was accused of taking notes for Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral.

He was embarrassingly escorted out of a stadium he once graced with his silky skills.

But after the episode, Pirates coach Bibey Mutombo maintained that he was not under pressure to win this Telkom Charity Cup semifinal showdown against Chiefs.

Mutombo said: "Honestly, I am not under pressure to beat them. We are continuing with our preparations for the coming season and we won't change our philosophy."

Mutombo said he might introduce new players to the line-up and field a slightly different side from the one that beat the selfsame Chiefs 1-0 in the Vodacom Challenge last week.

Ertugral said he noted that the Pirates camp has "been making a lot of noise in the media after beating us in the Vodacom Challenge".

He said: "They have been making a lot of noise, haven't they? Nobody wants to lose a Soweto derby but they are forgetting that they beat us in a pre-season match.

"In any case, I can guarantee them that it is going to be a different ball game in Mmabatho Stadium [tomorrow]."

Pirates' new signing, Josephy Kamwendo, agreed with Ertugral and said he expected Chiefs to come out with guns blazing and play a completely different game.

Kamwendo said: "These are the games we look forward to as players. We followed this fixture religiously in Malawi and I cannot believe that I will be playing in my second derby in the short period I have been here."

Kamwendo said the entire Pirates squad was so desperate to play that even those who are injured looked like they could push beyond the pain and troop onto the Mmabatho pitch tomorrow.

Platinum Stars face Bloemfontein Celtic in the other semifinal and the winners of the two knockout matches will face off in the tournament final at 5pm.