Posted in News on Dec 05, 2006.
Chiefs will need calm heads as they go into what is a crucial 15-day period, which will see them play in four league games - three of which will be at home. Coach Ernst Middendorp will be hoping that the experienced campaigners in his squad will help carry the mantle, as Chiefs aim to catch up with the league front-runners.
One man who will need to use his years of experience in guiding The Amakhosi to what the coach hopes will be a massive 12-point haul is veteran midfielder Thabo Mooki. The Chiefs midfield play-maker will also be using the next few matches to help carve his name into The Amakhosi history books.
Mooki, who made his debut for Chiefs in 1994, stands two games away from equalling Neil Tovey’s record of having played 364 matches in all competitions for Chiefs; Tovey achieved this feat while at Chiefs from 1990 until he left the club at the end of the 1998 – 1999 season.
Mooki is looking to Wednesday night's encounter with Amazulu in Durban, and then onto Saturday’s game against Pirates, to catch the former Amakhosi captain in the appearance stakes. As he aims to enter the history books, the Chiefs midfielder would like to do it in style “these next couple of games are not just important to me but to the entire team as winning them will get our title aspirations right back on track”.
He continued further by saying: “As a team our objective in the next few weeks is to get the maximum number of points out of our games which remain for the rest of the year. As I head towards Neil Tovey’s record I must add that being able to have played as many games and more that is really an honour, obviously I would love for the next three games to be ones where in we are successful. It would mean a lot to me to get to this unique milestone of having played 365 games, with a string of victories also knowing that amongst those was a win against Pirates”.
While an appearance on Wednesday evening followed up by one in Saturday’s big game will see Mooki equal Tovey’s record, Thabo is more focused at this moment on Wednesday’s game against Amazulu. It is a game where he feels the result can go along way in lifting the team's morale.
"With regards to the Amazulu game we have to be focused and cannot for a moment let our attention drift to Pirates. Victory over Amazulu is what we want and once that is achieved we will turn our attention to our next task, which will be to take another three points off Pirates,” says Mooki.
Thabo is aiming to have moved in to second spot behind Doctor Khumalo who made 397 appearances for, in the all time rank of the most capped Chiefs player when The Amakhosi host Maritzburg United at Vodacom Loftus in Tshwane (Pretoria) on the 17th December.
