Celtic ready to pounce on Pirates

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Clinton Larsons Bloemfontein Celtic are hoping to beat Orlando Pirates for the third time in six months when the sides clash in an Absa PSL game. Photo by Charle Lombard

Clinton Larsen believes the success Bloemfontein Celtic have had over Orlando Pirates this season has been a major boost to their self-belief, as they aim to take down the Buccaneers this evening for the third time inside six months.

Larsen’s side come to Orlando having already gone past Roger De Sa’s Pirates in both the first round league encounter on September 30 (a 1-0 win) and in the Telkom Knockout quarter-final on November 4, a tournament they went on to win.

“Those two encounters really got the team and players to believe we can challenge the best teams in the league,” said Larsen yesterday.

“It allowed us to go on and win the Telkom Knockout.”

The antidote to such a tale is that both those games were in Bloemfontein, while Celtic have battled on the road this season, winning just once in the league, at Golden Arrows, although they did pick up victories at Chippa Utd and Free State Stars in the Telkom Knockout.

Larsen believes he has seen signs of improvement away from home in the New Year, though Celtic have only managed a defeat at Platinum Stars, and a draw at Ajax Cape Town.

“We have changed the way we have approached games, in certain games before we went to get a draw. We have changed that mindset, we are trying to win, we did that (tried to win) against Ajax.

“Even though we went down to Platinum Stars we were the better team away from home.”

Larsen insists that Celtic will, in a similar vein, be going all out for victory against Pirates tonight.

“You will see with the line-up tomorrow that we will try to win the game, rather than play out a draw,” he said yesterday.

Celtic will be without a couple of key midfielders tonight, with Letladi Madubanya injured and John Arwuah suspended.

Pirates, meanwhile will have to keep their title race focus, with a Soweto derby against Kaizer Chiefs on the horizon this Saturday.

“I think they will be pretty focused on us,” warned Larsen, however. “Roger has made it clear he needs to win this game. I think you have to go back a long way to find when a Pirates team last lost two league games on the trot.”

The Buccaneers certainly need to find their domestic form, and fast, having been dumped out of the Nedbank Cup by Maluti FET College and then having thrown away a 2-0 lead to lose to Moroka Swallows last week.

Fixtures

Tonight: Tuks v Ajax, Tuks Stadium; Pirates v Celtic, Orlando; Leopards v Arrows, Peter Mokaba Stadium; Ama-Zulu v Platinum Stars, Moses Mabhida Stadium; Wits v Maritzburg, Bidvest Stadium; Chippa v Chiefs, Athlone (all matches at 7.30pm)

Saturday: Chiefs v Pirates, Soccer City, 3.30pm

Sunday: SuperSport v Sundowns, Lucas Moripe Stadium, 3.30pm

Results

FS Stars 1, SuperSport 1; Sundowns 0, Swallows 1

Standings

P W D L F A Pts

Chiefs 20 12 7 1 37 14 43

Pirates 19 12 4 3 27 12 40

Plat Stars 20 12 2 6 33 21 38

FS Stars 21 8 8 5 20 17 32

Maritzburg 20 7 7 6 20 19 28

Celtic 20 8 4 8 22 22 28

Wits 20 6 8 6 19 22 26

SuperSport 20 4 13 3 21 17 25

Tuks 20 5 10 5 21 20 25

Swallows 21 7 4 10 30 33 25

Sundowns 20 5 8 7 16 17 23

Arrows 20 6 5 9 19 22 23

AmaZulu 20 4 8 8 11 24 20

Leopards 20 3 8 9 22 34 17

Ajax 19 4 5 10 18 32 17

Chippa 20 3 7 10 17 27 16 - The Star