'Larsen's the new Dolezar'

John Maduka, who captained Bloemfontein Celtic to its first cup win in 20 years in 2005, yesterday compared the team's current coach, Clinton Larsen, to 2005 coach Paul Dolezar.

Larsen aims to guide Celtic to their first trophy in seven years when they take on Mamelodi Sundowns in the Telkom Knockout final on Saturday night at the Moses Mabhida stadium.

Frenchman Dolezar guided Celtic to a Top 8 trophy, with Celtic beating Supersport United 1-0 in the final in Potchefstroom.

"Dolezar always made us believe we could win anything and Clinton has that same influence on his players.

"He never puts them under any pressure, mostly because he understands them, as a former player himself," said Maduka.

Now Celtic's team manager, Maduka also observed that Celtic enjoyed greater fan support in the lean days of old than presently.

"Under Dolezar, we had a great coach and were hungry to win.

"After 20 years we hadn't won anything and were doing poorly in the league," Maduka recalled.

"But the supporters were even better then. I feel like things have changed and gone backwards a little bit over the years.

"Maybe it is because our games have been moved from the township venue - the Seisa Ramabodu stadium - to the Free State stadium. Travel arrangements were cheaper then."

Maduka believes Larsen provides players with a father figure, just like Dolezar did.

He said if there was ever a coach t o inspire Celtic to victory on Saturday it is Larsen.

"We lost to Sundowns in the league [last weekend] but the final will be a different ball game.

"Clinton could afford to take it easy in the league because [we hold a] decent position on the PSL table, but he will go all out in the final," Maduka said.

Celtic's key men, strikers Lennox Bacela, Lerato Manzini and Joel Mogorosi all started on the bench in the 1-0 defeat to Sundowns.

"But throwing them all back in at the same time doesn't mean Celtic will be more attack-minded.

"It's all in the game plan and I think Lennox can start up front on his own as has been the case," Maduka said.

"If you look at our road to the final, we scored a lot of goals playing the same style. This shouldn't change if we want to win the Cup."