There are plenty of sideshows to Ajax Cape Town's hosting of Moroka Swallows in a crucial Absa Premiership match at Athlone Stadium tonight.

Chief of these is the Birds' desperation for the three points that could ensure they avoid automatic relegation and move them out of the drop zone.

Victory for Swallows could take the Soweto club out of reach of AmaZulu below them, if Usuthu do not match their result at University of Pretoria, and above crisis club Chippa United if the Port Elizabeth side continue their poor form away to Mpumalanga Black Aces at Mbombela Stadium.

All the fixtures will start at 7.30pm.

That would leave Swallows' destiny in their own hands going into the final round of matches on Saturday, a considerable carrot to be dangled in front of the players.

The match will also see a return to Ajax for Craig Rosslee, who was head coach of the Urban Warriors between 2007 and 2009.

He started the season in charge of AmaZulu and so knows all about the pressures at the bottom of the league. He hopes that Swallows' weekend 1-0 win over Maritzburg United has seen his side turn the corner.

"Now we're in business and that's the most important thing," Rosslee told reporters.

"To be under enormous pressure and to grind out the result like we did was fantastic. I'm very chuffed with them [the players]. That now accumulates the pressure on everyone else, so we've done our job, and must just continue in this way."

On the other bench is a man with a real soft spot for Swallows but who is not about to give up free points as his Ajax side have ambitions of their own.

Roger de Sa is a Birds stalwart from his playing days and admits the Swallows result is the first one he looks for on the weekend, having maintained his affection for the club.

Ajax need just a single point from their two remaining games to be mathematically sure of a top-eight place and after some last-day disappointments in the past, De Sa will be eager not to take the issue into the weekend with Orlando Pirates on the horizon.