Stellenbosch striker Rayners to share R200,000 Carling Knockout MOTM winnings with teammates

Stellenbosch striker Iqraam Rayners plans to share some of his Carling Knockout R200,000 man-of-the-match (MOTM) winnings with his teammates. 

Rayners was named the MOTM in their last 16 win over Chippa United last month and he made it back-to-back in their 2-0 quarterfinal win over Polokwane City at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Friday. 

“Obviously I am going to give the guys something from these two man-of-the-matches. I will give them a nice braai after our next game against Chippa United where we will just relax and enjoy the moment,” he said, quickly dismissing they are going to have a party. 

“This is what this team is built on, the guys are together, we enjoy each other’s company, the coaches are always there to talk to the players and that’s how we go forward and get results. 

“We are not going to have a party, it will be something nice off the field to take the minds of the guys away from football a little bit and I know they need that because it is a long season.” 

The process of having fans vote for the Carling Knockout MOTM and the hefty prize money has divided opinion but Rayners said there is nothing he can do about it. 

“I just go out there to play and fight for the team and getting to the semifinals is some thing that I wanted to do. I am happy to be in the semifinal, but now we need to push and get to the final.” 

This is the third time this year Stellenbosch have made it to the semifinal of a major tournament and coach Steve Barker hopes they can finally make it to a final. 

Stellies lost in semifinals to Sekhukhune United in the Nedbank Cup and Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 and say hopefully the door for a place in the final will open for them this time around. 

“We must learn from our previous two semifinal losses where we went out on penalties and the other one on away goals. So, having reached the semifinal three times in this calendar year, you can only keep knocking on the door. 

“If you keep on knocking on the door, eventually it will open, so we are knocking on the door and we are knocking very loud. Let’s see what the draw holds for us on Monday and hopefully this will be our time.” 

Barker also took time to wax lyrical about his goalkeeper Sage Stephens who provided an assist for Devon Titus who scored the second goal. 

“There are a lot of times where we do play that way where Devon Titus runs in behind for us and it is pleasing to see a situation like that come off. It is not often a goalkeeper gets an assist and you could see joy on his face after doing something like that. 

“It was not by luck, I thought they defended it really well but if you continue doing those things, eventually you will get your due reward which is what we did this evening.”