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SuperSport coach Kaitano Tembo: 'We don’t want Sundowns to win the league on our watch'

Mahlatse Mphahlele Sports reporter
SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo is relatively pleased with his team's points haul at the halfway stage of the Premiership season.
SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo is relatively pleased with his team's points haul at the halfway stage of the Premiership season.
Image: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix

Kaitano Tembo says premiership leaders Mamelodi Sundowns will not get any favours from city rivals SuperSport United when the two sides meet on Wednesday afternoon.

Sundowns could wrap up the league title race with three matches to spare if they beat Pretoria neighbours SuperSport in the Tshwane derby at Loftus on Wednesday afternoon.

The Brazilians would also complete the unprecedented feat of winning four league titles in a row‚ but Tembo is determined to put a spanner in the works and delay their rivals' celebrations.

“Most definitely‚ we won’t be doing any favours to anyone‚” said Tembo.

“We had a very bad run over the past few weeks‚ but we are coming from a good and morale-boosting win over Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) in our last match.

“We want to finish the remaining three games on a high note and this match against Sundowns comes at the right time for us because we are playing with so much confidence as a result of that win over TTM.

“We want to finish as high as we can and this game is very crucial for us to achieve that mission. Players are highly motivated because it is a derby and you know how derbies are‚ they are always unpredictable and there are also bragging rights to fight for.”

United are sixth on the standings and still with a chance of qualifying for the Confederation Cup if other results go their way.

“We don’t want Sundowns to win the league on our watch. We are not going to allow that to happen because this is a derby.

"We also want to try and get the three points to improve our position on the log so that we have an opportunity to qualify for the Confederation Cup.

“At the moment everyone is available.

"The 14 days that we have had since we last played a competitive match against TTM have given us the opportunity to bring in players like Thamsanqa Gabuza and Ghampani Lungu from injury.

"We had time to work on them at training by playing eleven versus eleven and they are looking good to finish the season.”