Dondol Stars co-coach Vincent Rammoni urges players not to get carried away

Dondol Stars allowed their players to enjoy their shock 2-1 Nedbank Cup last-32 victory over SuperSport United but warned they mustn’t be carried away as they have a lot to play for in the league.

Dondol are top of the ABC Motsepe League in Gauteng ahead of Jomo Cosmos and co-coach Vincent Rammoni said though they are happy to advance to last 16 of the tournament, priority remains promotion to the National First Division (NFD).

“They are human beings, they deserve to be excited about the victory and they deserve to be happy about it. But they know that whenever it is time to do the work, it is time to work hard in the office with everybody rolling up their sleeves to put in the shift.

“Players that are always raising their hands on the training ground to say 'coach I am ready and I want to go with you for the next game', those are the ones that will always be rewarded.”

Rammoni said they will make the players aware that they have not won anything and the season is still long.

“There is no mechanism of how you can ground them because an achievement like this everybody needs to celebrate. I am happy too, so they deserve to be happy as well but in the back of our minds we need to say let’s take it one game at a time.

“Be in the league or Nedbank Cup, let's respect all the opposition, let’s put in the hard work. Whenever we have time to celebrate this victory we do it but we quickly switch back to preparations.

Having played at this level for the first time, Rammoni said they learnt valuable lessons.

“First, it is professionalism. When we got here you could see there is a difference between us and SuperSport in terms of preparation and organisation. You could see that they are on a top level, certain things that they have we didn’t have.

“The other important thing that we learnt is that the game of football is about who takes his moments. If you are willing to respect your opponents and to work hard, you will always be rewarded.

“They were very ruthless and look at the first goal that they scored. After that goal I was clear that these guys are super human. Our defensive organisation was very top and one of their players outjumps everybody and scores.

“Two minutes before halftime we get a similar corner kick and we head it outside and not on target. That was the difference between their players and ours. There are certain things that they don’t take for granted, they don’t wait for the next opportunity but they seal the one that they get.”

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