‘They are coming thick and fast’ : Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi on their fixture pile-up

A quick turnaround of matches means that Mamelodi Sundowns will return to DStv Premiership action against Baroka at Loftus on Tuesday and coach Manqoba Mngqithi is wary of the strugglers.

The Brazilians go into this match looking to increase their lead at the top of the standings and register their third league win in succession after recent victories over Royal AM and SuperSport United.

Their mission to get three points is not going to be an easy one as Baroka and their coach Kgoloko Thobejane arrive in the nation's capital under tremendous pressure having failed to win in their last 10 league matches.

In this period of underachievement, the Limpopo side have lost six and drawn four matches. They have dropped to the bottom of the log standings and former coach Matsimela Thoka lost his job.

“They (matches) are coming thick and fast,” said Mngqithi as he looked at their fixture pile-up of four matches in 10 days before the festive break.

“It is another tough one because Baroka have not been doing well of late. It is always tough when you are playing against teams that are struggling because they have nothing to lose.

“They are going to give it their all through hard work on the field and they are one team that always gives us a tough time. We are optimistic because if we deliver our A-game, we will get something out of the match. But at the same time we are not entitled to win every match.

“It is not always easy, especially when you play against these teams that are in the relegation zone because they always pull surprises, and we have to be vigilant and never take them for granted.

“We must give them the respect that they deserve because you don’t want to be that surprise package, where a team that no-one thought will beat you actually ends up beating you. We will look at their matches and profile them correctly to make sure that we are ready for the match.”

After the narrow 1-0 win over SuperSport, Sundowns have a 14 point lead at the top, they remain the only team yet to lose a match in the league this season and they are unbeaten after 25 away league games.

“It was a game that we started very well, but surprisingly in the first three minutes they got a shot at goal from Moses Waiswa which was snap shot in front of our defence.

“But from there we recollected ourselves, came back stronger, managed to get a goal and after that managed to pile intensity a little bit. It was unfortunate to lose Thabiso Kutumela because he was very influential in our high press and from there we started to give a little bit of space and time to Jamie Webber who has got a very good diagonal ball and Kegan Johannes.

“It was not an easy game but we take the three points and the 1-0 and give credit to SuperSport because they played very well and Waiswa was today a revelation and he was influential behind Thamsanqa Gabuza,” said Mngqithi.

SuperSport were without coach Kaitano Tembo and several other key players due to Covid-19 and stand-in coach Andre Arendse was full of praise for their performance.

“In a nutshell, I sit here with so much pride in the team for the way they performed. As thin as we came into this game today with some notable names missing from our starting line-up, all we wanted for the team was to compete.

“Against Sundowns that’s what you have to do, you have to compete for 90 minutes and when you do that you get something out of the game. I thought we deserved something out of the game, I thought as a team we pressed them in good areas. We won the ball and we created chances.

“We will look at the finishing abilities, at improving on being more clinical which is something that we always work on and I thought we pushed Sundowns in all departments.”