I would like to begin today by saying a warm and hearty thank you to all the supporters who came out in their droves last week after our defeat at the hands of Wits University, to all of those who lined the streets of Durban for the SAA Supa8 pre match street.

To those who came to the ABSA Stadium and also to all of those who sent us good will messages this thank you is for all of you. It was an honour for us to play in front of such a fantastic crowd at the ABSA Stadium, we also lot of positive energy from the fans in the days leading up to the Swallows game.

The team really rose to the occasion and played well and it was a really spirited and determined performance from the guys, which saw us through against Swallows. Getting to our second official Cup Final in just about four months is a real bonus, and has helped the team build their confidence in a way that is hard for me to describe in words.

Going back to Durban will be a real pleasure for us as we are always happy to play anywhere where we can get the same kind of motivation from our supporters that we do when playing in Johannesburg. Now back to the daily business of the PSL which sees us heading back to Durban for an important PSL game against Golden Arrows, even though it is an away game I am sure we will have the majority of the fans in the stadium.

We can always count on our supporters coming out in large numbers, which supplies a lot of motivation for the team, when it comes to Golden Arrows I must admit that I have been impressed somewhat by their play recently. Khabo Zondo has a good mixture of experienced and young players who have been getting the right results for him; particularly impressive has been Vusimuzi Vilakazi.

Vilakazi has been well supported by the like of Khanyeza and Mlungubisi Gumbi as well as the sly as a fox Alton Meiring, who really is the brains behind Arrows forays up front. We have had a look at their past games in particular their recent victory over Mamelodi Sundowns, which was one played with a lot of guts and determination and they got a victory which they really deserved.

Playing a team like Golden Arrows is never easy you know they treat a game against us like a Cup Final, and they come into the game fighting. We will take cognisance of this fact and our preparations for the game have been moving along, not with out incident I might add.

I am the first to admit when something goes wrong and I will say that our league results, have been far from what we would have hoped for them to have been at the moment. Perhaps some of our performances have also been lower than expectation, in particular our recent game against Wits, the players and myself do understand that and that is why we went all out to win the Swallows game. The SAA Supa8 Semi Final victory has helped us turn the corner and with the current euphoria and camaraderie in the team, I know that we will do well over the next couple of months of the season.

On the other hand our preparations for the Golden Arrows game have hit somewhat of a snag as we have been besot with a couple of injuries and suspensions, we do though have a strong squad with other players waiting in the wings for their chance to shine. There are question marks over the availability of Shaun Bartlett and Cyril Nzama for the Arrows game this Sunday, Cyril has been hit with a hamstring problem while we are not 100% sure what Shaun’s injury is about at this stage.

Furthermore suspensions to Tinashe Nengomasha who collected his third yellow card of the season against Swallows, and Siphiwe Mkhonza who received his marching orders against Swallows. Have forced us into making additional alterations to the team, I would have liked to have stuck to a winning combination sadly this cannot be the case for Sunday’s game.

It is definitely a blow for us to lose Mkhonza and Nengomasha as the pair have been performing well for us recently, Tinashe has been growing from strength to strength game by game and he has become a real menace to the opposition recently.

While we do have the above mentioned players not available for the trip to Durban, I have been informed by the medical staff that we should have David Obua available for selection come Sunday afternoon. David has also been out recuperating with a hamstring injury and I must say that he played two matches for us with the injury, and it showed in his performances in those games.

After being treated for two weeks David has responded well to the treatment and is back on his feet again, and has been training with the team for the past week. He has participated in all our training sessions and has not had any relapse of the injury which is a good sign, though I will wait until after our training session on Saturday morning to make a final decision on whether he will join to Durban or not. Like I said at the moment if all goes according to plan he should be playing in the game against Arrows on Sunday.

Once more thanks to all of you for your support and words of encouragement and motivation which had really helped lift us and got us into the SAA Supa8 Final, hope to see you all at the Chatsworth Stadium in Durban this Sunday.

I will leave you with a message someone text to me on Thursday morning and one that has really helped lift my spirits “A successful team is one who can lay a firm foundation with the brick others have thrown at them”.

Yours 4 Life

Ernst Middendorp


Kaizer Chiefs Head Coach