Chippa United assistant coach Thabo September is wary of his side taking their league game against Cape Town City lightly on Saturday at the Buffalo City Stadium just because of the visitors’ recent poor form (kick-off: 5.45pm).
September, a club legend at SuperSport United, watched Tinkler’s philosophy closely during his stint for Matsatsantsa a Pitori seven years ago.
Though things did not go smoothly, he managed to win the MTN8 trophy.
City have had a rough beginning to the season; being eliminated from the MTN8 and Carling Knockout early on and their performances in the league have been lacklustre.
They are 13th on the table with eight points from two wins and two draws in eight matches.
Tinkler has attributed those statistics to a lack of luck, suggesting he was not too concerned about the results because their performances “have been good”.
September, whose team are fifth on the log with 14 points from nine games, agrees with him.
“One thing about him, even when he was a player, he has the right mentality and the attitude to never give up; he always fights,” September said.
“Even last season they were struggling to get wins and towards the end of the season, when the second round came, the team bounced back.
“They found that consistency that he was looking to achieve and things started working out because he stuck to what he believed in.
“If you look at their game against Arrows, they lost on set pieces. On the playing side, they are doing well.
“Sometimes there’s this thing called lady luck in football and it’s not going their way, but we hope it doesn’t go the way on Saturday.”
Chippa will want nothing but continuity going into the new year and they also know that it’s important to collect maximum to see see them not only break into the top three, but buy them some breathing space from chasing pack.
“Everyone in the team knows how vital it is for us to collect maximum points in the two remaining games in 2024 to put ourselves in a good position heading to the second half of the season next year,” September said.
Defence would be the key, he said, if they were to deny City any points, having already kept five clean sheets. .
The Chippa attack has been fluid this season, with Ayabulela Konqobe, Andile Jali and Eva Nga in the top list of goalscorers so far.
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