DURBAN - Eric Tinkler has vowed to add more misery on AmaZulu when Maritzburg United host them in the KwaZulu-Natal Absa Premiership derby at Pietermaritzburg’s Harry Gwala Stadium tonight (8pm).
Friday nights in the province's capital city are always full of entertainment and drama. Expect the same when these clubs square up.
Needing to step out of the relegation zone, Usuthu are in desperate need for points while the Team of Choice are looking to achieve consistency to end the season among the top eight teams in the league.
Tinkler has indicated no sympathy towards his struggling neighbours.
“You want to try and use their struggles to your advantage. We also have our own problems, we are creating a lot of chances but we are not scoring. We haven’t scored a goal in the first 10 minutes of the game. I think that becomes important when you play teams that are at the bottom of the log. The early you can score, the better. So, we’ve got to ensure that we start the game extremely well. That’s a very important statistic (scoring in the last 10 minutes) that we need to change,” Tinkler explained.
AmaZulu are third from the bottom of the log with 17 points after 18 games. One point separates them from bottom side Baroka FC.
“We would love to cement our place as the best team in KZN. Local derbies are important. The log table is telling the truth. We are ahead of both of these teams (AmaZulu and Lamontville Golden Arrows) on the log and obviously that’s where we want to remain,” he added.
Tinkler’s team are seventh on the log with Arrows breathing down their neck on ninth with an identical number of points.
Said Tinkler: “Your home games are games that you need to dictate. You can’t allow teams to come and dictate terms. What we’ve seen with Friday nights is that the stadium is always full to capacity. We’ve seen the team coming from behind on many occasions. We’ve done it against Bloemfontein, Lamontville Golden Arrows and AmaZulu last season. We were 1-0 down against them and we came back and won that game (against AmaZulu). That 12th player has been of great benefit to us. We set targets that we want to reach and that’s why it is important for us to win this game.”
Maritzburg are unbeaten in the past six league outings.
“We want to worry about the teams above us, not the teams that are below us. That has been our objective and that has been our goal. The last game against Chippa United could have taken us to the fifth place had we won. That’s what we set prior to the game,” Tinkler explained.
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The Mercury
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