UWC has not had the start they desired in Varsity Football 2019, but Luke Vester believes that their semi-final hopes are still alive.

Much like his team, Vester has had highs and lows in the first three matches of the season. In the opener, at UFS, the versatile defence-minded player gave away a penalty before scoring one of his own as UWC fell short of a memorable comeback in 3-2 defeat. The 20-year-old then stepped up as walk-on captain in the 2-1 loss to UP-Tuks before a first game at home finally got UDubs’ season going.

“The first two games were a reality shock for some of the new guys in our squad, as they had to see and adapt to the level of Varsity Football,” Vester tells varsitysportssa.com before revealing how important last week’s 2-0 win over CUT at UWC Sports Stadium was.

“Now we have settled as seen in our last game and there is a lot of improvement from the first two games. Each player knows what they need to bring to the table and it’s only going to get better. Each player in our squad is quality and that showed in our last game.”

WATCH: UWC score cracking goals to get their season going…

Vester, who is in his third year at the Bellville-institution, hints at the changes which the squad have had to get used to since last year – when he, incidentally, didn’t play. Gone is their dependable striker Phiwokuhle Mpalala (to CUT) and star goalkeeper Renaldo Leaner (promoted at Ajax Cape Town), while erstwhile assistant coach Stanton Smith has taken over the reins. That said, and despite the slow start to the campaign, the 2015 champions are determined to get themselves back amongst the contenders.

“We set ourselves a target that we want to play in the semi-final. Ja, we had a bad start but we fighting for that spot in the top four,” the B.Ed student asserts.

They, of course, can make a big step in that direction with a statement making result when they face currently second-placed UJ in Soweto on Thursday.

“We haven’t done well away from home and that is something we are striving to rectify every time we are at training. UJ are not a bad side nor are they a great side but we have a few tricks up our sleeve that will ensure that we expose them come matchday. We are a very good ball-playing side and if we keep the ball against them, we will return with maximum points and that’s what we are going for,” Vester claims.

History reveals that UWC are unbeaten against UJ in their four Varsity Football clashes to date – thanks to two wins in 2016 and 2017 (the latter a convincing 5-1 result in Soweto) with their clashes in 2014 and last year ending in draws. That alone gives former Ajax Cape Town youth player confidence to talk about medium-term goals beyond this Round 4 clash.

“Thirteen points is ideal for a semi-final spot [it has been in each of the previous six Varsity Football seasons] but we must push harder. We just need to ensure that we don’t concede, also it’s a major bonus for us that we have been scoring every game, so we must just make sure that opposition don’t score and in football if you don’t concede you don’t lose,” Vester concludes.

Tickets for the UJ vs UWC clash in Soweto (kick-off 18:30) can be bought for just R10 if you use the Varsity Sports App, downloadable from the Apple App Store on iOS devices or from the Google Play store for Android users.