Dladla prays for favours as team chase playoffs

With three matches remaining in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, Maritzburg United assistant coach Pitso Dladla feels their destiny is no longer in their hands and will have to rely on other teams to do them a favour to finish in the playoff spot.

The Team of Choice head into Sunday’s matches fifth on the log table with seven points behind second-placed University of Pretoria and three behind Baroka and JDR Stars, who are both on 42.

Dladla, who is an assistant to his brother at Maritzburg, Simo Dladla, said what they need is to focus on their games to try and win them and hope other teams do them favours.

“That’s what boils down now because we just have to win our games and have to rely on other teams to do us a favour,” Dladla told Sowetan yesterday in Germiston, where he is currently doing a CAF B License diploma.

“But sometimes you rely on them and forget to concentrate on your team, even when they drop points, you also do the same. It doesn’t help. The most important thing is to focus on your games.

“Now it’s clear what every team is playing for. For us, we are trying to push for play-offs, which we just played two games in Limpopo. One in Polokwane against Magesi, where we won 2-0.

“We then played Venda in Thohoyandou, we drew 1-1. It tells you that in this league, anyone can beat anyone because we managed to beat the team that is number one, but struggled to win against a club fighting for relegation.”

The Team of Choice will host Hungry Lions at Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium on Sunday at 3pm, where they will be desperate for all three points to keep pressure on teams above them.

Fixtures (All matches start at 3pm)

Sunday

Casric v Rovers, Solomon Mahlangu; Upington v La Masia, Mxolisi Dicky Jacobs; JDR v Orbit, Soshanguve; Magesi v Milford, Old Peter Mokaba; Callies v Venda, TUT; Maritzburg v Lions, Sugar Ray Xulu; Baroka v Gallants, Global; Leopards v University of PTA, Thohoyandou.