Richards Bay coach Kaitano Tembo has played down his side’s chances of being fancied in the Carling Knockout Cup after the so-called big teams crashed out.
Bay, who currently sit second from bottom in the DStv Premiership, stunned Orlando Pirates by dumping them out in the quarter-final on penalty shootouts at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday, where scholar Philasande Manqele was the star of the show by saving a penalty to see Tembo’s side walk away 5-4 victorious.
Tembo’s boys will now host Stellenbosch FC in the semi-final on 2 December, with the venue yet to be confirmed by the PSL, but appears the game will take place at King Zwelithini Stadium since it is their home venue.
“Probably we are the underdogs,” said Tembo, who was the assistant coach with Gordon Igesund when SuperSport United won this cup in the 2014/15 season.
“If you ask all those clubs who they want to meet, they want to meet us. But it is a cup game, anything can happen.”
Bay’s main focus, though, remains in the league, where they have some pressure after bottom side Cape Town Spurs closed the gap to three points after they snatched a win against Pirates last week.
The Urban Warriors had lost the opening eight matches, which was record in the PSL, but they are up and running, but are still lying at the bottom with three and three points behind 15th place Bay.
“I think we have to worry about ourselves,” said Tembo.
“Because, if we worry about other teams, then we would be playing two games every game. Each time you are playing, you are playing two games because you are worrying more about other teams.
“Because what is important is for us to start winning our own matches, whether Spurs win or they lose. If they lose and we don’t win our matches, it doesn’t make any difference.
“So we need to try and focus on our game and win our matches. We are going to Stellenbosch, each and every game that we are playing, we are playing to win.
“Cape Town Spurs are coming to this side [on Sunday], we also want to win that match. That is my attitude at the moment.”
