Maduka eyes top-three finish as Royal lick wounds

With seven matches remaining for Royal AM in the DStv Premiership, coach John Maduka is now eyeing a top-three finish and is optimistic his side can finish there. 

Thwihli Thwahla, who were humbled by Mamelodi Sundowns on Tuesday after losing 5-1 at Loftus Versfeld, are 10 points behind second-placed SuperSport United and five adrift of third-placed Orlando Pirates. Speaking after the match, Maduka, whose side are seventh on the table, said they would need to try and win most of their remaining games to have a chance of finishing in the top three.

“We will continue to work hard because if you see the league itself, it is very tricky. The points are close to each other, especially at the top,” Maduka told the media after the match.

“I’m talking about from where we are to number two and if you lose games, you drop and you win, you go up. So, we just need to focus on the remaining games and try to make sure we win them.

“We can’t rely on someone to win for us. We must do it ourselves. But after this [defeat], you know we will come strong and we will try as much as we can to get the points that we need.

“We would love to finish in a good position at the end of the season and we do have that chance with seven games to go. I think it’s 21 points to play for, we just need to start all over again and be consistent.”

Maduka didn’t hide his disappointment after that embarrassing defeat to Sundowns but urged his side to move on quickly.

“Very disappointing performance from us if you look at the game itself, we started well in the first 10 minutes and we had chances that one hit the post,” he said.  

“We looked okay when we started, confidence was there, we used the ball well and after that, we missed those chances, we started opening up.

“We gave them so much space and with the quality they have they hurt us.”