Baroka gun for full points against Lions

Baroka coach Vincent Kobola has spoken about the importance of beating teams in the chasing pack if they are to earn a promotion back to the Premiership.

Baroka face joint table-toppers Hungry Lions at Sivos Training Centre in Kathu, Northern Cape, tomorrow (3.30pm). Lions are joint leaders with Pretoria University on 15 points, five ahead of Baroka, who are seventh on the Motsepe Foundation Championship table.

"This game against Lions is very important for us because we want to close the gap between us and the team at the top. We must beat these teams [like Lions] if we really want to earn promotion. We can't allow them to widen the gap,'' Kobola told Sowetan.

"Teams like Lions test your credentials because they have had a great start. Again it's an away game, we must show character even when we are playing away. Any team that is championship material wins away games, so this is a crucial game for us."

The Baroka coach, who was a right-back for teams like Jomo Cosmos and Swallows in his heyday, also revealed they are lagging behind in the targets that they had set at the start of the season. 

Kobola wants Bakgaga to have collected 30 points by the end of the season's first round. "We group games into five, targeting 10 points from each of those five games. We are behind because we have only managed 10 points from seven games.

"We must work very hard in the remaining games of the first half of the season. The aim is to at least get to 30 points before the second round of the season,'' Kobola narrated.

 Fixtures all at 3.30pm

Today: City Rovers v Callies, Bidvest

Tomorrow: Lions v Baroka, Sivos Training Centre; Venda FA v AmaTuks, Thohoyandou; JDR V All Stars, Giant

Sunday: Casric v Uthongathi, Solomon Mahlangu; Spurs v La Masia, Parow Park; Leopards v Magesi, Malamulele

Monday: PLK City v TTM, Peter Mokaba