Young Africans want to preserve top spot against Singida – Goncalves

Young Africans coach Pedro Goncalves has stressed the importance of their Mainland Premier League fixture against Singida Black Stars on Thursday.

The Citizens will head into the match sitting top of the league table with 29 points, one more than second-placed Tanzania Prisons. For Singida, they are placed ninth with 19 points from 11 matches.

 

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Speaking ahead of the game, the former Angola national team coach maintained their focus is to collect maximum points and remain at the summit of the league.

‘We want to keep our top spot’

“For us all the matches count, and we are crossing very high-density part of the season, if you look tomorrow (Thursday) in 15 days, it will be our fifth match, very competitive matches, travels, so, we are crossing high density,” Goncalves told Pan-Africa Football.

“So, we need to focus mentally, and the boys know very well the importance of the match, not only because we want to keep our top spot in the table, but also, we were going to play against one of the best teams in our league.

“Perhaps, and for sure, because they have matches unlike us. But our mission for the game is to come here and play quality match, but in the end for sure, we want to get three points, and preserve our position at the top of the table.”

Young Africans have respect for Singida

He added: “We always respect our opponents in any match that we play, because we need to be performing in offensive part, and defensive part, in transition, in set pieces, so we need to look for overall.

“If we look at our performance since I arrived in the league, we have nine matches, and scored 24 goals, so perhaps, yes, all the teams should develop, and should try to improve, but t perhaps until now we are not the worst team in our capacity to score goals.”

On the injury situation, Goncalves confirmed Dickson Job will miss the fixture after picking an injury during their last league fixture.

“In the last match, we lost one more player, but we hope not so serious like we have issues at the moment, but perhaps, Job we don’t know if he will return to play this season.

“We hope it’s not serious, but is one more setback, and we have to overcome those setbacks and focus on our performance, and what we need to do.”

Young Africans have registered nine wins, two draws, and zero defeats so far this season.