Swallows are out of the relegation quagmire with three matches to go, but interim coach Musa Nyatama has issued a word of caution that they are not yet out of the woods.
Swallows pulled off a crucial 1-0 DStv Premiership win over Maritzburg United on Thursday at Dobsonville Stadium to move to 12th spot with 31 points from 27 matches, which in the past has proved to be enough to stay up.
A late goal by David Uromi boosted Swallows’ survival chances but pushed bottom of the log Maritzburg United deeper into trouble as they have a mountain to climb to avoid automatic relegation.
“We cannot entirely say that we are safe, we still have three important games to play in a short space of time,” said Nyatama.
“On Monday we have Kaizer Chiefs who have done well recently and they got a good result away against Chippa United. We are taking one game at a time and we know it is not going to be easy in Polokwane against Chiefs, but we will go there and fight like we did against Maritzburg United.”
Over the past few weeks, Swallows have been in a relegation battle and Nyatama said it was stressful.
“It has been stressful down there, it is not easy and especially for a new coach like me. But I had to take it because this is a big responsibility that has been given to me to coach this club.”
By beating Maritzburg, Swallows have taken points from a fellow struggling team.
“It feels good to know you have taken points from the ones behind you, to climb the ladder you have to keep them below you and that is the most important thing for us,” said Nyatama, adding they must be tight at the back and score more during their remaining three matches.
“We have been conceding and not scoring enough goals and that’s the areas we have been lacking. You go to a game, play well and not score and also concede.
“If you look at the number of goals we have conceded, we are among the teams that have conceded most in the league. Today [Thursday] we needed character more than anything, we have been playing good football but not scoring goals.
“You can take our previous game against Stellenbosch. We played well, there were moments where we were dominating the game, but we could not score the much-needed goals.
“We had to stay behind the ball and allow them to come at us, we wanted to get a chance or two and bury it.”
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