MIHLALI BALEKA
Vusumuzi Vilakazi hasn’t been one to shy away from speaking his mind. As such, he fired a warning shot to Cape Town Spurs ahead of the survival battle on Friday.
With matches coming thick and fast in the DStv Premiership, Spurs and Richards Bay are in danger of being relegated. But it’s been Richards Bay that have got on with the business of staging a recovery. They won their last two games in a row, including beating Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday.
The two massive wins saw Vilakazi and his men retain 15th spot, while opening an eight-point gap between them and basement dwellers Spurs.
The Urban Warriors, on the other hand, have found the going tough. They lost their last four games in a row and are without a win in six matches.
The two sides will meet in a ‘six-pointer’ on Friday night at Athlone Stadium eyeing a result that could potentially decide their fate at the end of the season.
Vilakazi is confident that his side have the upper hand going into the game, mentioning where they could be able to exploit the hosts’ weaknesses.
“Playing away in Cape Town has never been easy but I think we have the upper hand … we have the confidence from winning our last two games,” he said.
“They haven’t won in four games (it’s six), so I suspect they will make a lot of changes because they are looking for solutions. Sometimes a thing you think might be a solution can be a disaster, so we will try to capitalise on their weaknesses.”
Vilakazi hasn’t been one to shy away from addressing opposition weaknesses and going all the way to expose them. He did that with Chiefs. After Amakhosi lost 2-0 to Chippa United three weeks ago, he said he wanted to play them then as they were still sleeping.
But nonetheless Vilakazi got the business done on Sunday, subjecting Chiefs to a worrying state before claiming: “People are yet to see Kanu as a coach.”
It might not be long before people see Kanu, the coach as a win over Spurs would all but ensure them of safety from automatic relegation with five matches to play. So, knowing that if they win, they’d need only four points from the last 15 available to be guaranteed safety, Vilakazi has urged his troops to focus on the game, and not the occasion.
“We are motivated by the challenge that we’ll get against Cape Town Spurs – it might confirm our safety from automatic relegation,” Vilakazi said.
“I don’t want us to lose focus of the bigger picture. If you make two targets at once, you might achieve neither of them. Right now we’ll take it one game at a time. It is then that when we win, we will know that we won’t be (automatically) relegated.
“We’ll then focus on the few games that are left and try to find (Moroka) Swallows if we can … we will definitely chase them.”
Cape Town Spurs vs Richards Bay
— Cape Town Spurs FC (@CapeTownSpursFC) April 23, 2024
Athlone Stadium 🏟️
Friday, 26 April 2024 - 19:30🕒
Tickets available on Ticketpro 🎫
Link 🔗 https://t.co/cFRRGZ5pdw pic.twitter.com/BYd1Va59FQ
TS Galaxy could also do them a huge favour if they beat the Birds in a simultaneous 7.30pm kick-off on Friday night. Vilakazi, though, knows that the Natal Rich Boys can’t only focus on the Friday matches.
“One thing that I always tell the players is that we don’t need to fill our eyes with tears because we might not be able to see an opportunity coming our way,” he said.
“So, the focus, (and) hard work that’s coming from the players is putting us in our good structure to make sure that we get more results come the end of the season.”