MTN 8: Stellenbosch shouldn’t be complacent—Barker

Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker has warned his team to guard against complacency in the MTN8 semi-final encounter against Sekhukhune United on Saturday.

The Western Cape-based team will go into the second leg match holding a two-goal advantage over Sekhukhune.

In football, a two-goal lead is said to be dangerous. Aware of this, Barker has told his wards to forget their victory from last weekend and fight in the second leg.

“We’re looking forward to another exciting challenge,” the coach told the club’s website. “Having made last year’s final, we’d obviously love to be back in another final.

“We started the first leg well and achieved our objective of scoring and not conceding an away goal. I thought we were really good at home against Sekhukhune United, but we are aware that the game is only halfway done.”

Barker acknowledged the strength of Sekhukhune looking at their form in the Betway Premiership. Eric Tinkler’s men are the joint league leaders with Kaizer Chiefs after winning three straight games.

“Sekhukhune are a very good team – they are showing that in their league form – and they will have the same ambitions of reaching a final,” the Stellies mentor explained.

“We understand that the challenge will be big for us, but at the same time, we have to reward ourselves for the work we did in the first leg. It’s up to us, and it’s our responsibility to go there for the second leg and ensure that we get ourselves into the final.”

He added: “We’ve learned over the season or so in these home-and-away times that you sometimes have to be braver away from home than at home because of the away goal. We can’t go there and expect that we can just defend our two-nil lead. That would be unwise. We’ve got to be positive and take the game to Sekhukhune.”

The Stellenbosch trainer has since demanded that his team must strive to get an away goal as soon as possible on Saturday to kill off the contest.

“We’ve got to try to get that important away goal, which I believe would put us in a really, really strong position,” he added.

Another semifinal match will involve Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.