Marumo Gallants caretaker coach Raymond Mdaka has refused to chalk up their relegation to participating in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Marumo were relegated on the final day of the season after losing 2-0 to Swallows at Dobsonville Stadium at the weekend. Bahlabane Ba Ntwa had a brilliant run in the Confed Cup, losing to Tanzanian side Young Africans in the semifinals.
“No, we wouldn’t say that [playing continental football drained us]. We just got relegated because of losing this game. There was no difference in the way we played in the Confed Cup and in the league. And we never said we are focusing on this and we are leaving this. We really can’t blame our Confed Cup participation,” Mdaka said.
He also indicated that they had never imagined themselves relegated, adding it was difficult for him to map a way forward at this stage. Marumo arrived in the Premiership via buying Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila status in 2021. Tshakhuma themselves had purchased the franchise from Bidvest Wits a year earlier.
“When you lose a game, as coaches we look at where we went wrong but today the sad part of it is that we lost in a situation where we had to lose the status. We are very sad about that. We never expected it at all. It never crossed our minds that we can find ourselves in this situation,” Mdaka said.
“The most difficult thing is that we will lose most of our players. We will have to go back to the drawing board, understand the situation and hear from the management where we go from here. At this stage, I really can’t say how we are going to do things...we have to cool down and take it from there.”
Marumo started the season with Dan Malesela at the helm but fired him 20 games into the campaign, with Dylan Kerr replacing him, albeit operating from the stands due to work permit complications. “We picked up very late. We were at the bottom of the log for a long period,” Mdaka said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.