UWC coach Masixole Matiwane has blamed his team’s poor run of form in Varsity Football on Lady Luck.
The Western Cape outfit registered just one win, one draw and four losses in six matches.
Matiwane says that luck deserted his charges in the competition. But he hopes to bow out of the competition on a high in the derby against UCT on Monday.
There is nothing but pride to play for in the derby, but UWC are planning to go all out for the three points.
UWC were unlucky not to have claimed a point in the 1-0 defeat to Tuks as they hit the post twice and were also denied by Tristyn Coetsee, who pulled off a couple of fine saves in the Tuks goal.
They were left to rue their missed chances at the end of the game, but left Pretoria with their heads held high.
Matiwane said: “Overall performance I think that we did well under the circumstances of playing against a top team like Tuks. We just have to go back to the drawing board.”
And how does Matiwane sum up his team’s campaign with just one game to go?
Against UCT there will be bragging rights at stake and the thought of preventing their cross town rivals from winning their first match will drive UWC on.
“To be honest with you if you watched all our games you would have noticed that we lacked the element of luck as you could also see against Tuks. We created about eight chances but could not convert any of them. Coming to the derby we are just going to play for pride but we want to win it. It will be good for us to end the campaign on a high note,” he said.
How is the state of football in the Western Cape, especially at junior level?
There is currently one team in the Premiership with Ajax Cape Town flying the Province flag.
“We are doing our best but development football in the Province is not where it is supposed to be yet. At the moment I think that we are on the right track young players are showing a lot of interest. But hopefully we can get somewhere,” said Matiwane.
What is it that UWC has learnt from participating at the inaugural Varsity tournament?
“It’s hard work but in this tournament we couldn’t play our normal football. We have to work on our defensive abilities and also work on our confidence,” he explained.
By Charles Baloyi – Daily Sun and Sunday Sun sports writer
