We enter the penultimate week of the season knowing that to qualify for the top eight competition we need to gain the full compliment of points on offer, that means that victory against Maritzburg United this weekend and Silver Stars the next is a must. Anything less than six points will mean that we face a possibility of not qualifying for the SAA Supa8, and to me it is unimaginable to even think down those line.

For me the only thing on my mind is for us to go out onto the field and win the two remaining games.

Kaizer Chiefs are the defending SAA Supa8 champions and for us not to be in the competition to defend our prize at the start of next season will be a disaster. For the moment our focus is doing the job from our end, which is to win our remaining fixtures, as we are not counting on results elsewhere working in our favour.

Our job and objective to get the points which will help us finish in the top eight on the standings begins this coming Sunday against Maritzburg United, it is really ironic that for the second week in a row I will be squaring up to one of my former teams. I spent six months of the current season at Maritzburg United so like it was ahead of the Pirates game, I am looking forward to us putting one over them and taking home the three points.

This fixture could prove to be a very tricky one as Maritzburg United are already relegated they will be out to prove that they should not have been relegated, and will come out fighting looking to salvage some pride. Losing to a team who have already been relegated will have the critics out baying for blood, and on the other hand should we win all they will say is that it is expected.

Nevertheless we want to win the game and it looks as though we will have to do it with a number of players still missing through injuries, Cyril Nzama did start with training on Tuesday I do feel that he still needs some more time to fully recover and will possibly miss out on the weekend.

From the information that I have it also looks as though strikers Kaizer Motaung Junior and Shaun Bartlett will again watch from the terraces, as they have not yet come back to full fitness. In my opinion it is better not to rush the players back to action as we have two games to go, it would be wiser to allow them to fully recover and let them head off on their pre season holidays with the knowledge that the real hard work will begin when they return for the pre-season, let them go off and start focusing on next season.

Thinking about next season is for the guys who are on the injury list - for the rest of us Maritzburg United is on our minds right at the moment. While we are destined to lose out to front man again we do have Serge Djiehoua to count on upfront. Serge demonstrated his ability to create chances and score goals from seemingly hopeless situations during our recent draw with Pirates, he is a tough player and fights for the ball and does not give up easily. Serge I do feel will be able to carry the mantle for us upfront as he did against Pirates, while we have been in active in official competition recently Serge has had a chance to play in a number of friendly matches over the past week.

Along with the Ivorian we have experimented with a number of combinations over the week, as we played two games against SuperSport United one of which was a reserve league fixture and the other a friendly game.

There was also a match arranged for us against the Madagascar National team which we won 6-2, these games were a good indicator for us to field a number of players who are presently on trial with us. As well as keeping our regular and fringe players match fit with these matches, I have been able to plot our game plan for our upcoming fixtures against Maritzburg and Stars.

With us out of the league race and the ABSA Cup finishing in the top eight is our number one priority at the moment, six points in our next two games should see us through to the top eight.

Be well and see you in Pietermartizburg on Sunday

Kosta Papic