Chippa United captain Mark Mayambela expects Black Leopards to bring their A game when the Absa Premiership outfits clash at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in East London on Saturday (8pm).
From what they have seen from the newly promoted Leopards, Mayambela said, it was not going to be an easy game to win but that they would still up for the task.
“They fight a lot, because I was looking at their game against Highlands Park.
“They came back from 2-0 down to 2-2 in the dying minutes of the game, so that shows their determination.
“But of course, even with us, we want to win that game at all costs and the mentality we are approaching this game with is winning,” Mayambela said.
“And playing at East London, where it’s always packed, is always motivating because the people there love the club and football itself – so we are expecting an interesting game.”
The experienced midfielder admitted that the Chilli Boys’ bad start was a setback in terms of gaining the momentum they needed to do well in the league.
“In football, every game is different, but the most important thing for us as a team right now is to score the chances we create.
“That will increase our chances of winning games.
“But it’s still early to look at the results of the two games and we can still recover somewhere else – starting with the game against Leopards.”When the 2018/2019 PSL transfer window opened, the Chilli Boys signed 15 players, including Jabulani Shongwe from Bidvest Wits, former Ajax Cape Town attacking midfielder Ruzaigh Gamildien and Thabo Nthethe from Mamelodi Sundowns.
And Mayambela was sure his team was not having trouble gelling on the pitch, though he admitted that new players in a team take time to learn and use each other’s strengths.
“It’s always the case when you have new guys joining the squad, but everything is getting better every day,” he said.
He said the return of mentor Dan “Dance” Malesela meant they had to be professionals.
“Most of us are familiar with Dance, even some of the players who are new to the team have worked with him before.
“And he’s not a difficult coach to understand. Even his football is simple.
“We are going to our slaughterhouse because that’s where we get most of our positive results.
“This season we are aiming to do well – better than last season, to finish as high as we can.
“But we’ll take it one game at a time and see how far we can push, because we push.”