Royal AM co-coach Dan "Dance" Malesela is a frustrated man as his side struggle to hit top gear.
As much as they showed character to come from behind twice to force a 2-all draw against his old employers Marumo Gallants at Chatsworth Stadium on Sunday, Malesela hasn't hidden the fact he's concerned they're not winning matches of late.
Tomorrow, Royal welcome provincial rivals Maritzburg United at Chatsworth (7.30pm).
Thwihli Thwahla began the season on high with victories over Kaizer Chiefs (1-0) and Chippa United (3-1) but have returned two defeats and a draw in their last three matches.
"It's a big concern [that they're winless in their last three DStv Premiership outings. It's pressure after pressure. We have pressure to beat Maritzburg so that we can get somewhere. We can't be going on like this because other teams are playing and winning,'' Malesela said.
"At least there were a lot of draws on Saturday [including Sekhukhune v Mamelodi Sundowns, Stellenbosch v Cape Town City and SuperSport v Pirates] and that gives us a favour but we have to do ourselves a favour and say 'hey, get to nine points'. We have to push ourselves."
Dance also admitted Thwihli Thwahla haven't yet found a consistent line-up, having been chopping and changing the playing personnel to start matches. Malesela also opened up about the struggle of coping with fixture congestion as teams have been playing two games a week since the start of the campaign.
"We haven't really gotten to that point where we can say 'hey, here is our starting XI and they can be stable to carry us through this pressure of August [where games have been coming in thick and fast]'. We will get it in the coming weeks, I hope,'' Malesela noted.
"It's going to be difficult because we basically don't train, hey. You just recover and make corrections but to say you're going to implement something new it's going to be difficult."
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