Former Jomo Cosmos midfielder Lucky Mhlathe has urged Cosmos players to play for their families and careers when they meet TS Sporting in the GladAfrica Championship on Saturday at the Tsakane Stadium (3pm) on the East Rand. 

Jomo Sono's bottom team find themselves in a compromising position and are on the brink of heading to the third-tier structures if things don't go their way in the upcoming match-days. 

As it stands, they are in a relegation dogfight with TS Sporting who are in 15th place with 27 points and 14th-placed Pretoria Callies who have 29 points.

The task of surviving the drop is rather looking to be difficult for Cosmos as their run-in looks a bit tricky as they will be playing two direct rivals, they first have TS Sporting at home, then Platinum City Rovers and Callies on the last day.

Mhlathe believes the players should play for their families and careers as relegation will have a detrimental effect on them. “Looking at this game, TS Sporting are on a roll, and Cosmos are in the ICU with one foot out of the league facing relegation to the ABC Motsepe League,” said Mhlathe.

“The [Cosmos] players must now fight for their lives, families and careers, because who is going to sign a  player that got relegated to the ABC Motsepe with Cosmos. If they can fight for these nine points starting with TS Sporting, it becomes a habit if you win games. 

“If Cosmos can win against TS Sporting, I don't see Callies standing in their way because of the winning momentum they will have and motivation. 

“But as it stands now, TS Sporting is at an advantage because of their winning momentum. If they can collect maximum points, they will be happy, they can jump Callies. For Cosmos, they can't afford a draw or loss, a draw will relegate them,” said Mhlathe, who is also a GladAfrica analyst.

When further unpacked, the situation Cosmos find themselves in, Mhlathe suggested that the lack of goals and regular conceding of goals were the main reasons for the downfall of his former employers. 

“They lost 3-2 against Tshakhuma and Venda Football Academy, I have always said in the first round and beginning of the second, that Cosmos is not scoring goals; they are now but their downfall is they are not defending well anymore. They score goals but after scoring they can't defend,” said Mhlathe.