Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler has admitted “massive” relief after his side won at the weekend because it means his squad will be in a buoyant m ood through the lengthy break until they play again.
Tinkler had been scathing of his players’ commitment when they lost the Cape derby to Stellenbosch at the Athlone Stadium las Wednesday but after beating SuperSport United at home on Saturday feels there will be a spring back in the step of the camp.
City not play again until the first round of the Carling Knockout on the weekend of October 19-20. The draw is being made next week but there are no games this weekend because of the MTN8 final and then a fortnight of international football, with Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Had they lost to SuperSport, however, there would have been a much different outlook.
“That was something that was obviously on my mind,” the Cape Town City coach said.
“You know that if lose the game, then you're going to be sitting for three weeks trying to fix problems with players with maybe the wrong mindset … a negative mindset.
“But it doesn't take away the fact that there's a lot that we need to fix still, but at least we can now do that knowing that, we got ourselves that first home win, which was very, very important and now we need to build on it, because the games are going to come thick and fast and in this league they're not easy,” Tinkler added.
“All the games are extremely difficult. But you know, so to be able to do it like this is preferable.”