Rulani Mokwena eager to leave his mark at new club Chippa United

Rulani Mokwena was full of energy and paced up and down the bench in his first match back in the limelight as he took charge of Chippa United during the goalless draw at title-chasing Bidvest Wits on Saturday.

The 33-year-old Mokwena‚ who replaced Norman Mapeza last week Wednesday‚ picked up his first point at the Bidvest Stadium having had only a single training session with the team before they departed for Johannesburg.

Wearing a chequered button-up long sleeve shirt‚ a slim leg utility pants and high-boot sneakers‚ Mokwena's enthusiasm on the bench was in abundance after his rather tumultuous five-month stay at Orlando Pirates until he was fired in December.

He sighed first before rolling his eyes when asked if he had missed sitting on the bench.

“No‚ you can’t stay out of football for too long. I took my time.

"I made the right decision‚ I think‚ to come to Chippa‚” answered Mokwena after he watched his team defend desperately in the dying minutes to ensure they returned to Port Elizabeth with a valuable point in the bag.

The point against Wits‚ obtained despite playing the last 10 minutes with a man down after Gerald Modisane talked himself into a second yellow card‚ saw Chippa move three points clear of relegation danger.

The newly appointed coach vowed to help the struggling club remain in the premiership next season and said his immediate priority was to steer the team to the 30-point mark as quickly as possible.

Coaches in the premiership believe that the 30-point mark is good enough to survive relegation from the topflight and it has proven to be the case over the years.

“For us we don’t even think about anything other than to make sure that we are looking at 30 points.

“If we start to look for top eight and other things we will have very little motivation. So you start looking at the reachables and 30 points is a reachable‚” said Mokwena.

The new coach has 13 days to prepare his team for their next assignment at home against fellow strugglers Cape Town City at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in East London on March 20.

Mokwena acknowledged the work done by his predecessor Mapeza‚ who threw in the towel last week after meeting the club’s owner Siviwe “Chippa” Mpengesi‚ despite an impressive record.

“The next fifteen days (13 actually) allows us to put in a little bit of work but be that as it may‚ I think I have got to give a lot of credit to the previous coach Norman Mapeza because I think there was a lot of work that was done on this team and a good foundation has been set‚” said Mokwena.

"We don’t have time so we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.

"We’ve got to try and manipulate what we can and just get through the season at this moment and time."