Leopards will not be relegated, says coach Masutha

After registering their fourth victory in a league match this season, the head coach of Black Leopards, Mr Joel “The Prophet” Masutha, is adamant that the team will collect enough points in their remaining matches and escape the relegation axe at the end of the season.

Lidoda duvha did the unexpected last Saturday when they beat Polokwane City 4-3 at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. The Thohoyandou side are still languishing at the bottom of the log, despite the fact that they had managed to collect four points in their last two matches. They held Richards Bay FC to a 1-1 draw at the Thohoyandou Stadium last Wednesday (16) before beating City three days thereafter.

Masutha said the victory had boosted the players’ morale. He said he found understanding why the team had failed to collect the full points in their previous matches difficult, since the team was playing entertaining, attacking football in all instances. The target is now to win all their remaining home matches and get at least a draw in their away fixtures.

Masutha added that what made him more confident was the fact that four of their remaining seven matches would be played in front of their home crowd. Three of their remaining matches will be against teams that are also fighting for survival. Black Leopards’ next fixture will be against Jomo Cosmos at the Thohoyandou Stadium next Saturday, 2 April.

Jomo Cosmos are also fighting for survival. Ezenkosi, as they are affectionately called, are lying in the second-last position on the log standings with 21 points, one ahead of Black Leopards. The other teams whose future as affiliates of the GladAfrica Championship League is pending, are TS Sporting, Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila and Cape Town Spurs.

Masutha said that he would be working on the strikers’ target shooting in the coming days. He added that the players had failed to convert what he described as obvious chances in their previous matches. Black Leopards had scored only 10 goals in the 22 matches they had played before Saturday’s 4-3 victory against Polokwane City.

Date:25 March 2022

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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