Posted in News on Feb 19, 2008.
Mathebula was unhappy with the fact that The Amakhosi were unable to win the match against Cosmos, but believes that they are determined to go one better on Wednesday evening when they face third placed BidVest Wits.
Admittedly though Mathebula has said that they are not expecting an easy ride against The Students who have been playing good, flowing football under Roger Da Sa’s guidance this season. The tricky midfielder feels that it is up to Chiefs to take points off teams like Wits if they want to change their fortunes around.
Pivotal Week
With Chiefs squaring off with Wits and then SuperSport United and Ajax Cape Town in their following matches, Mathebula feels that The Amakhosi have the perfect opportunity to resurrect a strong challenge for a top five finish.
“We're playing teams who are ahead of us on the table so it is up to us to take points off them and ensure that we close the gap on them. It is not going to be easy given the kind of football that Wits are playing, we must be positive and it is basically up to us to make the ascent up the table. We have the opportunity to do so in the next week”.
Student test
Mathebula has been impressed by the way Wits have been going this season and is expecting the match to be just as tight as it was when the teams met in August in the first round match of the league. In what was a closely contested affair, Wits won the game through a Noah Chivutha penalty.
Talking about the Wednesday match-up he explained, "Matches against Wits are always tough. They are a team who come at you for ninety minutes and do not stop attacking. When we played them in August we saw that it does not matter how many chances you have, they will do anything to prevent you from scoring. We learned our lessons from the August match and we know that they are strong in defense and in attack. We are better prepared to tackle them this time around, like I said - we're not expecting it to be easy but we are hungry for victory”.
