Chippa look to 12th man in do-or-die showdown

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

This is how relegation-haunted Chippa United are addressing the situation staring them in the face.

The lone Eastern Cape PSL representatives have decided to use their 12th man to guide them over the relegation hurdle when they take on Polokwane City in a crucial league clash on Saturday.

This is even though they will be playing away from home when they visit City at the Pietersburg Stadium in Polokwane.

Chippa are only a point above basement dwellers Maritzburg United and given the resurgence of their relegation candidates, alarm bells are sounding for the Port Elizabeth outfit.

So much so that the club bosses have decided to mobilise their supporters to back the team at the game.

Club COO Lukhanyo Mzinzi has been meeting with partners of the club to find ways of transporting supporters to Polokwane to rally behind the boys.

“We want to make sure there are many supporters there,” he said.

“We’ve seen it with other clubs and municipalities – Maritzburg United have also received help from their municipality.

“So we are going all out to ensure that fans are there with the team in these trying times.”

Mzinzi said his office had also made inquiries with their East London fan-base to see where they could assist those fans who were willing to travel to support the struggling PSL outfit.

“Since the large fan-base is Port Elizabeth we already started to make arrangements. But we’ve also made inquiries with our people in East London.

“So we are still trying to sort that out because there are people who have travelled thousands of kilometres to support the club before.

“Hopefully, we’ll finalise everything by Thursday morning because we would like to see scores of supporters travelling with the club.”

“We know the game is going to be one of the crucial engagements for the club.”

Chippa are smarting from the home drubbing by Cape Town City, which plunged them deeper in the quagmire.

They are also relying on City to ease off during the game as they have already qualified for the top eight.

Mzinzi said the Chilli Boys needed the three points more than Polokwane City, who have only two games left to play in the league.

“City are in the top 8 and we are fighting for our lives.

“We played them and won, and they’ve also won against us.

“Both of us have played many draws, but we think we can beat them.

“But when you are in the situation we are in you don’t expect any favours from anyone.

“We are going there to fight and not expecting anyone to do us favours – we’ll do it on our own as people of the Eastern Cape,” Mzinzi said.

Mzinzi said that the mood in the camp was still positive despite the hovering relegation axe.

Chippa will play embattled Kaizer Chiefs after the Polokwane trip.

“We have to beat City and again we’ll be home next week against Kaizer Chiefs, and we don’t want to go to that game with too much pressure on our shoulders.

“So you’ll think that much of their efforts will be focused on that final, rather than our league game. We know they are a quality side but we’re not expecting any favours from them.

“But we must start by winning this game against City,” Mzinzi said.