The Amakhosi coach Muhsin Ertugral will be hoping that his team continue with their winning ways and win their third match in a row when they host their Soweto rivals Moroka Swallows in a midweek ABSA Premiership clash.

The Amakhosi who will be at playing a number of matches in Durban over the next few weeks, arrived in KwaZulu/Natal on Monday afternoon and had a training session early on Monday evening at the ABSA Stadium.

While a technicality over a double booked training ground kept the Chiefs coach from kicking off his morning session on Tuesday on time, The Amakhosi did eventually get things underway when they went back to the ABSA Stadium and instead conducted their training session at the main stadium where they will play Swallows on Wednesday.

Through the morning downpour Ertugral ran the rule over his team. With more rain forecast for Wednesday evening, the coach was happy to get his team to get used to the kind of conditions they can expect at game time.

Apart from the physical conditions, Ertugral has made it clear that his team will be up against it on Wednesday, and will have to fight with all they have to get three points off Swallows.

Derby time

The Amakhosi’s assignment against the Birds on Wednesday evening will be the perfect dress rehearsal according to Ertugral, for Chiefs upcoming Telkom Cup ½ Final match up with Bloemfontein Celtic at the weekend.

While the coach is only concentrating on Swallows, his feeling is that being a Soweto derby the added pressure and excitement of a derby game, will be much like a cup game. Ertugral added “playing a derby is different to every other game because of the rivalry and tradition behind the two teams; no one wants to be up ended by their neighbour. So we go into this game looking to keep up our suburban authority over Swallows, a win over Swallows will obviously also have a lot of positive spin offs for the weekends game”.

Hard time

With a win in their previous league game, Ertugral is hoping that his team can build on what was achieved last Wednesday against Free State Stars. Wit the Swallows game being a derby, things might just be a little closer. Ertugral though wants his team to make it six points out of six. As he added “when ever we come up against any opponent we do not like to pick out certain players for special attention, if you look at a team like Swallows they have a number of very capable players. So if we think about one player there are a ten others who could cause damage, remember there is the added spice of them having a number of former Chiefs players in their team.

Any player who comes up against his former team has one thing on his mind and that is to inflict pain on them, we know the kind of game Swallows play and we believe that it will be a tight physical affair and are ready for to make it a derby to remember”.