Coach Clinton Larsen’s “simple plan” to help lift Chippa United away from the bottom three teams in the Absa Premiership appears to be on track at this early stage.
Larsen’s blueprint involves his team collecting at least five points from every three matches they play. By doing so, the coach will accumulate enough points to save the team from relegation.
If the team manages to achieve something close to that, they could even get as close as the top eight by the end of the season.
So far the Chilli Boys have four points from two league matches and they only need a point from the next game to tick the first box of three games.
This means the Port Elizabeth-based professional team will have to make sure they do not lose to Free State Stars when the two sides meet at Goble Park on Saturday (6pm).
“I did a simple calculation when I took over [at Chippa],” Larsen said.
“There were 13 games left and the club had played 17. I had targeted that in every three matches we get five points which is 20 points plus the 15 [the club already had] which gives you 35 points.
“Meaning you are safe and you are knocking on [the] top eight door. It’s a simple calculation but we will take it one game at a time.
“The important thing for us is to pick up points against our neighbours at the bottom. We did it against Maritzburg United and Baroka. We need to do it against Free State Stars. Those are the teams in bottom.”
“We have two homes games after Free State Stars. We have Supersport United and Golden Arrows so if we keep the table ticking away with points we will easily get out of this situation.”
The coach said having experienced players like Andile Mbenyane, Kurt Lentjies, Diane Klate and Mark Mayambela in the team will come in handy in the last 11 games of the season because they lead by example. “We are very privileged to have such quality senior players in our club.”