Stellenbosch head coach Steve Barker lauded his team’s performance after their 1-0 victory Cape Town City on Friday, and was proud of how much they had grown in 2023.
Oura Anicet scored the solitary goal for Barker’s side as they moved up to third, and ended a six-game winning run for Eric Tinkler and his City team.
Barker said he looked back at their last win at the Danie Craven Stadium against City, and how that team came from behind to win, and was pleased to see how much the side had matured since then.
“I thought it was a superb, committed energetic performance,” Barker said at the post-match press conference.
“You know, I reminded the players on the 27th of January at the same stadium we were 2-0 down. We were 14th or 15th on the log table. It was Oshwin Andries’ last match.
“I looked at the squad that day, Sibande was his debut. We had Oshwin, 18 years old, we had Olwethu 18 years old, playing in the backline we had Mervin Boji, 20 years old playing up front, Jayden Adams…
“So it was a young squad and we came back from the depths of full of despair, 2-0 down to win it 3-2 and I think since then, we’ve been a different team and a reformed side and today I think we just showed that we’ve matured as a team.
“We’ve grown as a team, there’s obviously a lot of confidence, a lot of belief amongst the squad. You know, it’s not easy to get back-to-back victories in the league.
“It’s not easy to keep clean sheets, we’ve now kept clean sheets in our last sort of four matches, in the space of just two weeks. So that leading into the cup final is obviously good for us.
“But yeah, it’s all about this (evening), a great, committed, energetic, tactically disciplined performance.”
