We need to get out of that position, says Kerr
Gallants focus on the league after Confed Cup heroics
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Now that they have qualified for the CAF Confederation Cup quarterfinals with a match to spare, Marumo Gallants coach Dylan Kerr wants his side to shift all their energy to the DStv Premiership as they aim to move away from the bottom.
Gallants qualified for the quarterfinal despite losing 4-1 to Al Akhdar on Sunday, with the final match to be played after the Fifa international break.
Contrary to their league form and position, Gallants are first in Group A with nine points from five matches, after winning three and losing twice.
USM Alger and Saint Eloi Lupopo drew their match also on Sunday and that ensured Bahlabane Ba Ntwa have qualified for the knockout stage.
“When I came here there was no confidence. We changed the dynamics of the team, everybody is now getting an opportunity to play,” Kerr explained to Sowetan yesterday.
“We are where we are in the league and we need to get out of that position and the only way we can do it is to focus on the league because we have qualified into the last eight of CAF, which nobody expected us to even get into the group stages.
“We need to prepare for the game against Royal AM and Kaizer Chiefs because these are two must-win matches.”
Gallants will not have it easy with remaining matches against Royal, Chiefs, Chippa United, SuperSport United, Maritzburg United, Mamelodi Sundowns and Swallows. Kerr, who is yet to receive his work permit, was full of praise for his players as they had to go through difficult challenges in order to qualify.
“It’s a massive achievement for a club like Gallants and a massive achievement for me. I have been in this competition twice and it is the first time I reached the quarterfinals,” he said.
“And coming into the club which was demoralised that’s why they are at the bottom in the league and we’ve changed our fortunes a bit, especially in CAF, even though the results were not what we wanted here.
“We came here and gave a good performance under difficult circumstances of not having tickets for three days and being told the game is either on Monday or Tuesday and we flew on Sunday afternoon to Benghazi and arrived at 4pm to be told that kickoff is at 7pm. And to perform the way they did from the three days that we had, I was very pleased with the players.”