Highlands Park have made Makhulong Stadium in Tembisa their fortress, and anyone who comes there must sweat, according to defender Ryan Rae.

Not many teams have come out with the results from Makhulong since the Lions of the North were promoted to the Absa Premiership.

With Highlands to host Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinal at this venue in two weeks' time, Rae warned the Brazilians that they will make life difficult for them as well.

"I can say it's going to be a tough game. Everyone coming to Makhulong is going to sweat. We will prepare ourselves and work hard," he said.

"It's going to be an entertaining game. We are excited about it. We are motivated by it. We can't wait. We need to get through any team to get to the trophy.

"That's our mentality; to be competitive, do our best and show our supporters what we can do, especially at the Makhulong Stadium."

The Tembisa side have been in a cup final already this season in the MTN8 in which they lost to SuperSport. For them to reach another final, they will have to negotiate their way past a tough Mamelodi Sundowns side.

They have already defeated giants Chiefs in this competition and they believe they can do the same against Downs.

"Yes, we have been in the cup final but we are still learning every day. If we can get into this cup final it will be a dream come true.

"If we want to compete against the top five then we must play them," he said.

Rae and his teammates will travel to Durban to face
Golden Arrows in the Absa Premiership match at Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium on
Saturday (3.30pm).