Cape Town City head coach Eric Tinkler says the squad have learnt a valuable lesson ahead of facing Kaizer Chiefs in the DStv Premiership this week.
After 11 league games this season, City have only lost three games but languish in 10th position in the table, mainly due to their lack of cutting edge which has seen them draw five and win three.
In their last fixture, the Citizens dropped two points against TS Galaxy after Wayde Lekay netted an 88th-minute equaliser in the 2-2 draw which Tinkler says was a kick in the teeth.
However, the prospect of facing an ‘in-form Chiefs is something that will motivate his squad to turn the corner.
“Ja, we are starting to prep now for the game against Kaizer Chiefs, an in-form Kaizer Chiefs, who’ve had some positive results of late,” he told the club’s media department.
“A game against them, as a coach, I don’t really need to motivate my players, my players should be already motivated knowing that they’re playing against such a high profile club as Kaizer Chiefs.
“We come off the disappointment of the draw against TS Galaxy. Normally, people would be happy with a draw away from home, but we are not, it was a disappointment for me, and a disappointment obviously from the team as well, not to have collected maximum points against TS Galaxy.”
Tinkler says the disappointment is a ‘positive’ and cites the ‘hunger’ to achieve more from his group of players who lost the MTN8 final to Mamelodi Sundowns in October.
“We need to go to Chiefs, organised structurally, disappointed how we conceded the goals against TS Galaxy, so that’s an area we need to improve on again,” he added.
“We’ve managed to keep clean sheets against the best team in the league in Mamelodi Sundowns, and consistency becomes key, especially now, when you’re going into a game against Kaizer Chiefs, where upfront, they have a lot of firepower in Billiat, Dolly, Bernard Parker and Manyama, a lot of players that can score goals.
“So defensively, we need to be very, very well structured and organised. But we need to go there, and again, play with no fear, play with a lot of belief in ourselves. We are a team that likes to play attractive football, so we would like to continue doing that.
“But sometimes we have to play ugly football in order to collect maximum points. And I think that’s going to be the lesson this week for the players, to understand the importance of us improving defensively, not leaking the amount of goals that we’ve been leaking, and staying consistent in terms of what we do.”
City will travel to Soweto this week to face second-placed Amakhosi at FNB Stadium on Saturday (18h00).
