Chippa United will be hoping to bag a second victory of the season when they play Free State Stars in an Absa Premier League fixture on Wednesday night at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.
The Port Elizabeth PSL outfit return to the hard grind after a week’s break, courtesy of Saturday’s MTN final between new champions Cape Town City and SuperSport United.
After Chippa’s goalless draw against Golden Arrows in their last league fixture, Chilli Boys’ coach Eric Tinkler welcomed the break, saying it would come in handy.
A positive result on Wednesday against Stars will assure coach Tinkler that his boys are on the right track.
Although disappointed by the goalless draw against Arrows, the coach gained comfort from the fact his team did not concede any goals.
However, he said they needed to be consistent.
“We kept a clean sheet. This club was struggling at the beginning of the season to keep clean sheets,” Tinkler said.
“We were conceding goals and against Arrows, Daniel [Akpeyi] was not forced into making any fantastic saves.
“Defensively, we looked a lot more structured and more organised, Tinkler said.
“It’s all about creating consistency. We have our game model, we have our system and we need to continue believing in it and not change it.
“We need to work on our fitness levels as well, because concentration starts going towards the end of the match and then mistakes are more frequent and those are the small things that I have picked up.”
Chippa got their league campaign off to a rocky start this season, claiming one victory so far. Their poor run has seen them languishing at the bottom of the log with five points from six games.
A win against “Ea Lla Koto” could just be the tonic the Chilli Boys need to turn things around.
The last time the two sides met early this year it was Chippa who came out victorious, beating Stars 1-0 at East London’s Sisa Dukashe Stadium.
Tinkler’s troops will be banking on home ground advantage to give them the lift they need to beat Stars and also bag their second win of the season– and their first win at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in this campaign.
Although Stars are eighth on the PSL log, they too have not had the best start to the season.
The Bethlehem side have one win under their belt – a 1-0 victory against Highlands Park.
The visitors, however, failed to keep the winning momentum going and played to a goalless draw with Baroka FC in their last league fixture.
They will also be chasing the points on Wednesday.