Vasili Manousakis has welcomed the responsibility that comes with being the sole head coach at Richards Bay, saying he'll still work hand-in-hand with the current technical team.

Manousakis and Pitso Dladla were Bay's co-coaches until the club decided to name the former as a sole head mentor amid a slump in form almost a fortnight ago. Tomorrow's league game against Orlando Pirates at King Zwelithini Stadium will be Manousakis' first game flying solo, with Dladla now his assistant. Bay have lost their last five league outings.

"Now that I am the sole head coach, the responsibility will fall completely on my shoulders. I still have a good support from the coaches around me,'' Manousakis told Sowetan yesterday,

"I am not really interested in titles because sometimes they mean nothing but I understand that the accountability now stops with me, so I will face the music if it doesn't go well and I am prepared for that. It's business as usual... we continue to operate very closely as the technical team."

Manousakis also narrated how he thought his Bay days were over when chairman Jomo Biyela called him to a meeting to notify him he was now going to be the lone mentor. 

"I was called to a meeting and I thought that was it as I was the last one to join this team [among the technical team members], so I thought probably I was going to be the first one to be sacked and probably that was going to be the right decision because the results haven't been going our way,'' the Bay trainer explained.

"I was prepared for that but the chairman told me I was going to be the head coach until the end of the season."

Fixtures

Tomorrow: Bay v Pirates, King Zwelithini (3pm); Chippa v SuperSport, Nelson Mandela Bay (5.30pm); Chiefs v Stellenbosch, FNB (5.30pm); AmaZulu v Swallows, Moses Mabhida (8pm)

Sunday: Arrows v Sekhukhune, Princess Magogo (3pm); Galaxy v Maritzburg, Mbombela (5.30pm).