Amakhosi coach Ernst Middendorp who himself could pick up an award on Thursday afternoon when Absa holds the awards ceremony honouring various individuals for their contributions towards making the 2006 Absa Cup a truly memorable one. Was on hand on Thursday morning as he sent e-mail to Silver Stars coach Owen Da Gama, for collecting the 2005-2006 PSL coach of the season award.

Da Gama collected the award at the annual PSL awards held on Tuesday evening at the Coca-Cola Dome in North Gate outside Johannesburg. Da Gama beat off the challenge of Jomo Cosmos' Jomo Sono as well Golden Arrows' Khabo Zondo and former Orlando Pirates coach Kosta Papic to take home the prize.

In congratulating Da Gama Middendorp said, “at this point the right thing to do is to congratulate Owen, he is a fellow colleague and he rightly deserves this award”.

Silver Stars, who marked their PSL debut in 2003-2004 by reaching the 2003 Coca Cola-Cup Final, where goals from Stanton Fredericks and Patrick Mayo saw the Amakhosi triumph 2-0 over them - have accounted well for themselves and proved many pundits wrong as they were not given much hope of staying longer than one season in the top flight.

Stars were one of only three teams to beat Chiefs this past season and were one of only two teams to have beaten Amakhosi at home in 2005-2006, the other being SuperSport United. Chiefs did getr a chance to avenge the 4-2 defeat they suffered at the hands of Stars in November 2005, as Chiefs came from behind to defeat Stars 2-1 in their penultimate league game of the season back in April.