Cape Argus - Eric Tinkler is under no illusion as to the arduous task that awaits his Cape Town City squad when they take on high-riding Bidvest Wits in the first leg of the semi-finals of the MTN8 at Bidvest Stadium on Saturday night (kick-off 8.15pm).
Wits have had a screaming start to the season, with victories over both Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, and City coach Tinkler is certainly well aware of the nature and culture of the opposition he is about to face.
Tinkler started his playing career at Wits before going on to forge a successful career with clubs in Portugal, England and Italy. Now making his way as a coach, the 46-year-old has had a great opening to his tenure at the helm of City, though he readily admits there’s still a long, long way to go, and there’s still a lot of hard work ahead.
“It’ll be really tough against Wits,” said Tinkler. “Wits are up there in the running for the title this season. They’ve been there and thereabouts for the last few seasons and I think they will be among the main candidates for the title come the end of the campaign.
“But our aim is just to go into the game with a positive attitude and approach. Most importantly, we want to try to, at least, get an away goal that we can bring down to Cape Town for the second leg, to give us something to defend.”
The second leg of the semi-final will be played on September 17 at the Cape Town Stadium.
City have just one casualty, with defender Robyn Johannes picking up an injury during a friendly last week. He will be out for a few weeks. The rest of the squad is available and Tinkler acknowledged that, as yet, he had not made up his mind who will play at left-back.
With the loss of the brilliant Aubrey Modiba, who signed for SuperSport United an hour before the close of the transfer window last week, Tinkler needs to find a replacement on the left side of his defence.
“We have options,” said Tinkler. “We’ve got the youngster, Ebrahim Seedat, who I think is a fantastic talent and, with Modiba sold, we were able to take SuperSport’s Thato Mokeke on loan. He can also play left-back. I haven’t decided yet.”
But, even after two opening wins in City’s debut season - a 2-0 success over a Polokwane City in the league and the 1-0 victory against Chiefs that secured the cup semi-final - Tinkler is not getting carried away.
“Look, the approach in the two games was different,” said the former Bafana Bafana midfielder. “Against Polokwane, we could be more attacking, while against Chiefs we sat back and played on the counter. For both, though, I thought we applied ourselves well and that was good. But, offensively, I think we still have a lot of work to do, while there are also one or two things about our defensive shape that concerns me. But, as I say, at this stage, it’s still a work in progress. There’s still a lot to do.”
Cape Times