New Sekhukhune United coach Papi Zothwane wants to keep the club among the top five contenders in the Betway Premiership and install more belief in the players.
Zothwane has taken over from Cedric Kaze on a permanent basis, he insisted on Friday, and begun his tenure with two successive draws against TS Galaxy at home and a 1-1 away to Stellenbosch on Friday.
“The goal is first to get the players believing in themselves, because sometimes when you are not winning, some … most of the players will think they are not good enough,” said the former Bafana Bafana attacker after the stalemate at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town.
“And I think we've got good players that can take us where we want to go. Personally, the club that I'm coaching now has been always in the top five (of the league).
“And obviously, with me, now that I’ve taken charge of the team, I also want that the team remains in the top five, come the end of the season.”
Sekhukhune struggled to get going against Stellenbosch on Friday, said Zothwane.
“We didn't have a good first half. The way we wanted to approach the match, we lost a lot of balls. We didn't have a connection from defence to midfield and attack. So, it resulted in us playing long balls, and we tried to rectify that in the second half.
“We became much better on the ball,” he said.
Sekhukhune eventually broke the deadlock with Namibian international Bethuel Muzeu scoring in the 63rd minute – his first top flight goal after his move from Black Leopards.
“But the challenge started after scoring, where we defended deep and made it very, very difficult for ourselves to come out.
“That resulted in us conceding the goal in the last minutes of the game,” the coach added
Stellenbosch’s equaliser came three minutes from the end from Bradley Grobler.
“But overall, in terms of the effort, the hard work that the players put in, I can't falter them, although it feels like a loss.
“So, it says to us, we must play the game until the last whistle, because it was 87 minutes when the goal was conceded. And those are the lessons that you can take to the next game. But overall I think it was a good match.”