Free State Stadium will be the fourth venue to be used by Marumo Gallants as their backyard this season, having also played their home fixtures at Peter Mokaba, Royal Bafokeng and Dobsonville stadiums.

Marumo host reigning champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup last 16 tie at Free State Stadium tonight (6pm). Bahlabane Ba Ntwa caretaker coach Raymond Mdaka has conceded the nomadic life is overburdening them. Mdaka is expected to continue leading Gallants as coach Dylan Kerr is still waiting for his work permit.

“I can’t dispute that moving from one place to another is taking its toll on the players. Things would have been far much better if we were based in one place. Travelling is tiring... even if you travel from Polokwane to Gauteng,” Mdaka told the media in a virtual conference yesterday.

“Some of the things are beyond our comments as the technical team and that’s the situation we find ourselves in at the moment.”

Marumo’s itinerant situation is also exacerbated by their participation in the CAF Confederation Cup. They played USM Alger in Algeria on Sunday, losing 2-0. Marumo played their first Confed Cup Group A tie against Libyan side Al Akhdar at Soweto’s Dobsonville Stadium, where they won 4-1 on February 12.

They took the game to Soweto because CAF didn’t inspect Royal Bafokeng Stadium as at the time the Rustenburg venue was undergoing renovations.

On facing Sundowns, the Marumo interim coach sounded fazed by the quality they boast, highlighting it’s difficult to profile individuals as you can’t be sure who they’ll field since they have many players.

“When you are playing Sundowns, you can’t definitely say how the XI will look like because they have a lot of playing personnel... good quality. The only thing you need to focus on when you’re preparing to play them is how they play because they can play whoever they want but their style of play will remain more or less the same,” Mdaka explained.