I felt that there were specific areas in the game where in we were flat and could have been more enterprising and a little more creative, in the end it did not happen for us and we had to settle for a draw.

Obviously it is not the result we were craving for especially since we have a big cup final coming up this Saturday in Durban, victory over Sundowns would have been the perfect volt to give us a surge ahead of the final.

Inside the first couple of minutes against Sundowns on Saturday we looked bright and sparkly and it seemed as though things would be going our way, unfortunately we lost Siyabonga Nkosi through injury inside the first ten minutes.

Losing Nkosi was a real blow for us there can be no doubting the fact that he is one of our key players, we had been expecting a lot out of him against Sundowns.

When he was stretched off we had to restructure ourselves, I must say that for the short time that he was on the pitch he did make himself a nuisance to the Sundowns defence.

Even so losing him is no excuse for drawing the game; unlike in many of our previous games we were unable to create many goal-scoring opportunities, while the midfield was perhaps on the lax side.

There were other parts of the field where we were able to deal with Sundowns as our defence held together well, even when Gordon Ingesund brought on Lungisani Ndlela.

I felt the defence handled him well and dealt comfortably with the aerial threat that he poses, and generally at the back we contained them quiet well.

We kept the dangerous Jose Torrealba at bay and were also able to deal with Josta Dladla when he came on as a substitute in the second half, as he proved quiet a handful when they defeated us last season.

With league activity on hold for the next two weeks we turn our focus to cup competitions starting this weekend with the SAA Supa8 Final against SuperSport United.

Which will be followed up a week later as we begin our Telkom Cup hunt against Bidvest Wits in Johannesburg on the 28th October, we will for this week though keep our focus on SuperSport United and the SAA Supa8 Final.

There is no feeling like reaching a cup final and there is no feeling like winning a Cup Final, having tasted victory in a Cup Final in May when we won the ABSA Cup we would like to have that same victorious taste again this weekend against SuperSport in Durban.

Getting to the Cup Final is one thing winning it is what is of paramount importance, after all the hard work of making it past difficult opposition in the ¼ Final and ½ Finals one does not want it undone by not succeeding in the final.

Obviously SuperSport are also looking to win as they lost in the final last season and will want to in some way avenge the fact that, we dethroned them in the ABSA Cup last season.

Pitso’s team had two tough opponents in Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns who they defeated in the ¼ and ½ Finals respectively, that demonstrates just what a tough opponent we are up against on Saturday.

As we seen in the semi final against Sundowns they are a team not afraid to attack from the word go, they really gave The Brazilians a tough time.

Katlego Mashego showed his is deadly in front of goal with a quality finish from close range, SuperSport will be hard nuts to crack on Saturday I do feel that the kinds of challenges posed by SuperSport will make us stronger.

I do feel that we have the ability and the mental strength to rise up to the challenge and defeat SuperSport on Saturday, our players do have the experience of having contested many Cup finals and hopefully our previous Cup Final experiences will count in our favour against SuperSport.

We have begun our preparations for the Cup Final on Monday and have had a number of our casualties joins us, those being David Mathebula and Tinashe Nengomasha although there are a number of questions that need to be answered re-guarding Derrick Spencer’s availability for the game.

As the week progresses it will become clearer as to how he is progressing and even though we are leaving for Durban on Wednesday. We will in all possibility take him with us and see how things play themselves out through Thursday, Friday and perhaps Saturday as well.

For now that is all I will keep in touch with you as Saturday draws near and I hope to see a see of gold and black at the ABSA Stadium on Saturday, together let us make it a truly remarkable occasion.

Yours for the flight with destiny




Ernst Middendorp