Casric Stars coach Bucs Mthombeni, who’s also the co-owner of the club, has narrated how they were really not aiming for a win against Orlando Pirates.
Second-tier Casric stunned Pirates 5-4 on penalties in the last-16 of the Nedbank Cup at Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.
The game had ended goalless after extra time. Pirates skipper Nkosinathi Sibisi missed Bucs’ first spot-kick in the shootout, while fellow defenders Mpho Chabatsane and Nkosikhona Ndaba also couldn’t convert theirs in sudden death.
“I know my players are excited about beating Pirates, but that wasn’t the plan. Coming here was about making sure we honour the game and we are not being hammered and embarrassed,” Mthombeni said.
It was when Bucs substituted Patrick “Tito” Maswanganyi and Deon Hotto that he realised they had a chance to win the match.
“I started to believe we can win this game after the 73rd minute because that’s where Pirates started to take off players that were a threat to us, such as Tito and Hotto, bringing in players we can match. [Tshepang] Moremi was starting to lose patience, taking shots from all over the pitch,” the Casric owner-mentor said.
Mthombeni also made it clear that their priority was to gain automatic promotion over winning the Nedbank Cup, albeit they do fancy their chances in the Ke Yona tournament.
“We will definitely take it one game at a time, but in the Nedbank Cup you can’t say only top-flight teams stand a chance. Galaxy won it in 2019 [as a second-tier side, beating Kaizer Chiefs in the final in Durban]. But our main objective is to focus more on the league. We don’t want to now focus on the Nedbank Cup,” Mthombeni stated.
“It’d be good to win automatic promotion this season after struggling to do it for years. We’ve been unlucky in the play-offs.
“This game is now the past. The main cup final is on Friday [when they host the Bees in the league]. You can see that we’ve been dropping points of late, but Milford are only five points ahead of us, so we must not allow the gap to widen.”
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