Polokwane City head coach Lehlohonolo Seema still sees plenty of room for improvement as they prepare to face Richards Bay at the King Goodwill Zwelithini Stadium on Wednesday evening. Rise And Shine picked up their third win of the DStv Premiership season on Saturday when they beat Royal AM 1-0 at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium to climb into the top half of the table in eighth place.
Seema’s side dominated the match and struck the woodwork three times, but in the end Ndumiso Mabena’s 45th-minute goal was enough to register another three points at home – their third in five games.
The Motsepe Foundation Championship winners have yet to collect any points on the road since gaining promotion though, and Seema feels that is one of the areas they came improve upon.
“If you can miss a lot of opportunities and score one and defend it, then we are happy. Our record at home is better than away. If we can do well at home, then away we can see where we can fight and steal a point or three,” he said.
“But I’m happy with the performance of the guys, however, there is still a lot of work to do and the experience of Mabena helped us as he scored the goal.”
The Natal Rich Boyz recovered from an early goal down to draw 1-1 with TS Galaxy at the Mbombela Stadium on Sunday, although it left them one point adrift of safety in 15th position.
Performances are improving, however, as Kaitano Tembo’s side have lost just one of their last four league matches and they created numerous chances against the Rockets, only to be let down by poor finishing.
Tembo claims the quick turnaround in fixtures isn’t helping their cause as he hasn’t had much time to prepare his players for the trip to Durban.
“Travelling can play a huge role in terms of the freshness of the team. But this is our situation. We just have to try and dig deep and find ways of getting ourselves out of this,” he said.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Richards Bay
Justice Figuareido: The 25-year-old striker from Eswatini put in another fine display against Galaxy and his willingness to press in the final third led to a mistake from Mlungisi Mbunjana that was pounced upon by Langelihle Mhlongo to equalise. Figuareido had a few opportunities to win it for Richards Bay in the second half, but failed to trouble the goalkeeper.
Polokwane City
Douglas Mapfumo: The 23-year-old Zimbabwean striker made his sixth consecutive start of the season against Royal AM and was a constant threat, having hit the crossbar with a header before Mabena opened the scoring from the rebound on the stroke of halftime. Mapfumo also showed some lovely touches with his feet and played a lovely ball over the top for Oswin Appollis, whose cross was steered against the left post by Mokibelo Ramabu in the 53rd minute.
Source: eNCA
