Basie happy Lions have solid base

Hungry Lions coach Henry Basie is not reading too much into his side’s solid start to the new Motsepe Foundation Championship. 

The Northern Cape team started off with a bang, amassing back-to-back wins against Black Leopards and Pretoria Callies. The positive results sent them top of the table as they are the only team to pick up maximum points in the opening two games of the season. 

Another impressive thing about these wins is that they were away from home. Instead of complaining about playing away in consecutive weeks, Lions played the cards they were dealt and won big. 

“We are happy to get the six points. It was tough for us with the travelling, so it was good to get the two wins and start the season well,” said Basie. 

“But we were lucky, we did not play well. It’s still early in the season, teams are still trying to settle. It’s a good thing that we got six points and are on top of the log.

“Hopefully, at the end of the season, we will look back on these six points and say that’s where we started. It’s too soon to be talking about promotion, some bombshells are still going to come. Right now teams are not ready and we got lucky,” he said. 

The two wins have laid a foundation for Hungry Lions their coach wants them to build from them and go on to win consistently and convincingly. 

“We can build on these two wins; we want to be consistent as the season goes on. It’s all up to the players, they have to be determined to get results consistently. We are a club from the Northern Cape and it would be nice to see us doing well,” said Basie. 

Results: JDR Stars 0 - 0 Casric Stars, Venda 1 - 0 Platinum City Rovers, Polokwane City 3 - 0 Black Leopards, Pretoria Caillies 0 - 1 Hungry Lions, Baroka 0 - 0 All Stars, Magesi 1 - 2 Cape Town Spurs.