Pirates aiming to bounce back

Orlando Pirates will be aiming to register their first win in the bio-bubble and simultaneously snap a six-game winless run when they host SuperSport United in an Absa Premiership soccer fixture at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday.

Pirates’ poor run of form continued as they slumped to a 1-0 loss away to Cape Town City on Sunday, a sequence of results which has seen them score just one goal and take only four points from a possible 18.

Pressure is mounting on Buccaneers coach Josef Zinnbauer to lead his team to a positive result and he is hoping the extra few days of preparation will turn his club’s fortunes around.

“This is not so easy, now comes the first week where we have a little more space [between games] and we can go a little more to the field [for training]," Zinnbauer said.

“We can work with the team about the final third [challenges], that is the point where we have to work more and more in the future — [starting] this week and after this week, even in the next preseason that’s coming up.

“But it’s not so easy to work with the team in the bubble, it’s not an excuse but it’s so.

“The recovery days are important for the players and then you have to be careful with the work. The muscles are not easy when you have tough sessions.”

SuperSport have taken 13 points from the last 15 available and claimed a 1-0 away win over Black Leopards, with a late goal from Ghampani Lungu, in their most recent outing.

“For us at the moment is to try to take it one game at a time and that’s very important‚” Matsatsantsa coach Kaitano Tembo, who has watched his team reignite their hopes of playing in Africa next season with their recent run of good form, said.

“We don’t want to really look way ahead of ourselves and I am focusing more on our performance and building for next season.

“We are not going to have enough time during the off-season to prepare‚ so this is part of our preparation for next season.

“We are taking it one game at a time and also try to finish better than last season.”

When the teams met earlier this season, at Mbombela Stadium in August 2019, SuperSport racked up an emphatic 3-0 home win, thanks to goals from Bradley Grobler (2) and Ghampani Lungu.

Pirates have managed just one win in the last nine league meetings of these teams.

In another game on Saturday, Highlands Park will lock horns with Maritzburg United at the Dobsonville Stadium.

The Lions of the North are enduring a poor run in the league as they are winless in their last six matches, having drawn 1-1 with Polokwane City away last weekend.

They now find themselves outside the top eight on the league standings as they are placed ninth, two points behind seventh-placed Cape Town City with three games left.

However, Highlands coach Owen da Gama is proud of his charges and he will once again pin his hopes on in-form striker Peter Shalulile, who netted against Polokwane.

“It is understandable. It’s a difficult period for everybody, as you can see from some of the results that are coming,” he said.

“You can say it’s shocking results, but I’m proud of the boys.

“We have always said that a lot of goals would be scored from set-pieces during this period and we have been working a lot on our set-pieces.

“I’m happy that Peter scored that goal [against Polokwane]."

Maritzburg are winless in three matches in the league after drawing 0-0 with Bidvest Wits at home on Sunday.