David Mathebula made a welcome return to the Kaizer Chiefs starting eleven last Sunday making his first start for Chiefs this season, as The Amakhosi played to a 1-1 draw with Moroka Swallows in Germiston.

While many pundits are of the opinion that Chiefs overall were not at their destructive best against Swallows, it must be said that Mathebula did manage to rise above the pack and did his own credentials no harm with a good showing against the Birds. Mathebula was handed his first start of the season after a number of impressive displays for the Kaizer Chiefs reserve team, that coupled with the arrival of Kosta Papic as the new Chiefs coach breathed new life into Mathebula’s career at Chiefs.

With the first part of the job complete and having fought his way back into first team contention, Mathebula is aiming to hold on to his place in the team and is looking to do that with a big performance against Black Leopards on Sunday. Talking to kaizerchiefs.com on Saturday morning Mathebula believes that it is his ‘hard work never hurt any one policy’ that has helped him win favour with coach Kosta Papic. As he explained “I am convinced that the only way I have been able to find my way back into the first team, is through a lot of hard work extra hours on the training ground. Coupled with the will to want to succeed and the desire to want to play game in and game out, has allowed for me to claw my way back into the team”.

The dynamic young midfielder who played a major part in Chiefs ABSA Cup triumph last season had been hoping to have played a more prominent role for Chiefs this season, he doe believe that two factors have contrived towards helping him in his quest to play first team football again. “I must say that the kicking off of the reserve league has helped players like myself win favour with their coaches, these games have given me the platform to demonstrate to the coach my willingness to fight for a place in the first team. I do feel that I have played well for the reserves which thankfully did not go unnoticed, me given a run in the first team again based on my performances with the reserves gives hope to all the players in the reserve team that if you play well you will get your just rewards” said Mathebula.

The second factor which he believes has helped him in his bid to play first team football again was the arrival of coach Kosta Papic he explains further “the arrival of a new coach meant that the entire team started on a clean slate. The coach made it clear from day one that whatever has happened in the past is finished, that made me very optimistic about my future at Chiefs and it made want to work hard because I knew what the end result would be”.

Furthermore Mathebula is full of praise of coach Papic and his ability to get the best out of his players, when he added “the coach has the knack of using various ways to motivate his team, his approach in dealing with everything from training to assisting players with personal issues is very different. He reaches out to his players, and try’s hard to understand the guys better well and all of those factors makes you want to be under the leadership of such a coach”.

With his newfound self-confidence Mathebula who hails from the Limpopo province is looking to put one of his fellow Limpopo residents Black Leopards on Sunday afternoon. “I must add that in every game I play I always aim to give my best, somehow when I play against teams from Limpopo I am more determined to win the game, really it is something I cannot explain” said Mathebula. Born in Elim which is close by to Thoyandou the hometown of Leopards in the Limpopo Province, David is looking forward to Sunday’s game for a number of reasons.

“My good friend Jabu Maluleke who plays for Leopards has been at me all week, he is convinced that will win on Sunday. There is no way that is going to happen I am not going to give him the opportunity of having bragging rights over me, after our draw against Swallows were are looking forward towards getting back on the winning path. Even though we have a few guys missing we still have the depth and the quality to give Leopards a tough time on Sunday, the guys are looking at finishing the weekend inside the top three spots on the table” added Mathebula.

Fighting talk from David Mathebula as he prepares himself to renew his rivalry with Leopards, Mathebula will remember this fixture all to well from last season as he won the man of the match award when the teams clashed in December 2005. Added to that Mathebula was amongst the goals for Chiefs as they drew 2-2 with Leopards in Thoyandou, he will be looking to put up a similar performance and will be hoping for a Chiefs victory this time around, which will complete the league double for Chiefs over Leopards this season. As Chiefs won the first league meeting between the teams in November 3-1, Sunday’s game between Chiefs and Leopards kicks off at 15h15 in Tshwane at Loftus Stadium.