To us it has now become more transparent that the league for this season will be heading to either Orlando Pirates or Mamelodi Sundowns. As the staff at Sundowns and Pirates offices begins to make space in their trophy cabinet for the league trophy, we have now turned our focus to the ABSA Cup.

Before our eagerly anticipated ABSA Cup semifinal against Sundowns next weekend, we have a league game on Sunday against Silver Stars. I am sure most of you can remember that Silver Stars inflicted upon us our first defeat of the season when they defeated us 4-2 back in November.

That is a game which we would like to wipe out of the memory.

Silver Stars have had a good season and were unlucky not to have got at least a point out of their last league game against Sundowns which they narrowly lost. Stars have played an exciting attacking brand of football for most of the season. There have also been times when they performed below par and one of those occasions was when they were defeated 3-1 by Ajax Cape Town.

Going into Sunday’s game, we cannot hold grudges against Stars and think of revenge and such things, as we would only be putting ourselves up for defeat. Instead we will use the game to acclimatize ourselves to the pitch at the Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, as our ABSA Cup semifinal game against Sundowns will be played at the same stadium a week later.

Our aim is also to get the three points off Silver Stars and SuperSport in our final two league games, as we aim to finish as high up in the league table as we possibly can. We owe it to our supporters who have stood by us over the season to exit the season on a high and continue on next season from where we will end this campaign.

Going back to Silver Stars, they do possess a number of players who are hard working and give away no quarter, the likes of their captain Willem Jackson. He has done a good job of running the line in defence and is supported well supported by Koketso Mmtong both of whom were amongst the scorers when we played them in November.

Other members of their team who will need a closer look at are Katlego Mashego and Dingaan Masanabo.

Generally, from our side we do not have any problems to mention, we have an overall clean bill of health and are just looking forward to a good game.

Till Sunday - take care and see you in Rustenburg

Ernst Middendorp