DURBAN – Golden Arrows are one step away from making history, but coach Steve Komphela is not putting too much emphasis on that possibility.
Abafana Bes’thende advanced to the semi-finals of the Nedbank Cup after beating Bloemfontein Celtic at the Dr Molemela Stadium on Saturday.
Knox Mutizwa was pivotal for Arrows with his two impressive strikes in a 2-1 victory, while Bongani Sam got onto the scoresheet for Phunya Sele Sele.
Arrows are looking to become the first team from KwaZulu-Natal to win the Nedbank Cup, but Komphela doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself.
“Not really, not really (answering the question of whether he is thinking about the final or not). I’m focused on the process. Same way we worked at Celtic, we brought it together and you can see that it is tight.
We want to develop a team that will be a project strong enough where you are looking more of a process, performance will assist you to get the outcome. When you get results such as this, you go back to the hotel and reflect and you look at the positives and how far are we in terms of where we want to be.
The results will help you even better. You can see that there’s something come out of the process,” Komphela said.
Komphela is also searching for his maiden trophy in his club coaching career and is now only a few steps from getting the monkey off his bag.
"It was a difficult encounter. Credit must be given to Seema (Lehlohonolo), John Maduka and the rest of the players. You could tell that they were the force even without Phalane. The introduction of Ndumiso Mabena and Menzi Masuku brought more energy. You could see the calmness on the ball.
It was a good feel even though, it could have been a better match. It was (a) bit hot and the grass as well a little bit dry. The game could have been a little bit faster,” he said.
FIXTURE ALERT 🚨
Here is how our fixtures stand for the month of April pic.twitter.com/34CWznUefc
— Golden Arrows FC (@goldenarrowsfc1) April 1, 2019
Arrows haven’t won a trophy since 2009 when they lifted the MTN8. Komphela is on course to end that barren run.
“Overall performance, I think we gave a good account of ourselves playing away against the good team like Celtic.” Komphela said.