×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

Rollers bank on home advantage

Township Rollers' coach Madinda Ndlovu takes the Botswana side into Saturday's African Champions League tie against Kaizer Chiefs hoping home advantage and confidence in his squad will lead to an upset result.

"We only have to win 1-0 to go through," Ndlovu pointed out in an interview with Sowetan ahead of the first-round, second-leg clash at the National Stadium in Gaborone.

Amakhosi have a slender 2-1 lead from the first leg at FNB Stadium, but Rollers have a potentially vital away goal should the aggregate scoreline end in a tie.

"We are aware of what we are facing this weekend after the scare we gave Chiefs," said Ndlovu of the first leg, where centre-back Tefu Mashamaite's stoppage-time goal spared the South African champions' blushes.

"We have got home advantage, and the fact that we finished the game very strongly has given us confidence.

"The support we earned from our Botswana fans with the display we gave in Johannesburg will also play a major role. We have to take up from where we left off in the first leg."

Rollers made Chiefs look relatively ordinary at times in a match-up that the PSL champions were expected to dominate.

"Our players were thrilled to play one of the great names of African football, and then to find out it was possible to string a few passes together in the game gave them a sense they could achieve something.

"On that note, we now know they [Chiefs] are just another team, like any other, and that's a major boost."