UWC coach Salie Adams believes the time has come for the senior players within his squad to take responsibility.
UWC have enjoyed a “ying-yang” 2017 Varsity Football season with their form at home contrasting drastically with their away form. The Western Cape side have nine points from their five games thus far, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the full story.
The three victories earned were all at the UWC’s notorious “Operation Room” in Bellville with the 2015 champions smashing in 14 goals past Wits (6-0), University of Fort Hare (4-0) and North West University (4-0).
In contrast, UWC have not earned a point on the road yet with defeats to Central University of Technology (2-1) and Tshwane University of Technology (4-2) completing their roster.
This has earned UWC the label of “bad travellers”, which Adams addressed in a meeting on Wednesday evening.
“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster hasn’t it? Adams chuckled. “But there are loads of factors for it, like we haven’t had the opportunity to get together much outside of game time because all the players are students and they have academic things they must do, but that’s not an excuse, all the teams have the same issue.
“We had a long meeting where we addressed certain things. It wasn’t me talking. It was the senior guys in the team and they have accepted responsibility and spoke a lot about what needs to change and how the time is now to focus on the football.”
UWC, though, have been boosted with the return of the World Student Games goalkeeper Renaldo Leaner. The Ajax Cape Town youth shot-stopper is an integral part of UWC’s plans and will no doubt need to put in two big performances in the last two games against the University of Johannesburg (Thursday) and Tuks (Monday).
Equally, UWC also welcome back the influential Luke Vester and Adams is confident this experience will steer his team into the semi-finals.
“It is the first time all season that we will have everybody involved. A fully-fit squad. The preparation hasn’t been ideal but we know what we need to do.”
