Following their promotion to the DStv Premiership, Polokwane City coach Duncan Lechesa says they will immediately start doing ground work to prepare for their return to top-tier football.
Rise and Shine won the Motsepe Foundation Championship title thanks to goal difference, which was better than Cape Town Spurs’ as both sides finished the campaign on 57 points.
Going into the last day, City were outside favourites to clinch automatic promotion. Four goals in the first-half from Samuel Nana, Francis Baloyi, Puleng Marema and Bulelani Nikani against Pretoria Callies at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium were enough to secure the three points and promotion.
This season had its ups and downs for the Polokwane-based side, from starting well to losing their co-coach Papi Zothwane to Uthongathi, a dark cloud of the club allegedly ill-treating visiting teams surrounded them. They also spent time without Lechesa who was sick, but they managed to pull through.
Lechesa commended the team for winning promotion and sticking to the plans put in place during his absence. “It was not an easy task, I’ve done it before with the same team and I said to them history will repeat itself. No one gave us a chance,” Lechesa told SuperSport.
“It was not easy, in the one-and-half months I was not here, they stuck to the plan and what we have been doing. When I left, they took over and never said the coach is not there. They did it for the team and the whole of Polokwane.
“The players worked very hard, we are doing something special, the only thing that we know is hard work. It’s just to go back now and plan for the PSL,” he said.
His lieutenant, Phuti Mohafe, held the forte when he was not there. “We never stopped believing, from January I have been telling the boys we are going to win the league with one point,” Mohafe said.
“I kept telling them to never lose hope. When we started dropping, we started to lose hope but we said we can’t lose hope now, we can’t let it go in the end. We led the league for 16 weeks and we have to keep believing,” he said.
NFD results:
JDR Stars 5 – 0 Platinum City Rovers; Polokwane City 4 – 0 Pretoria Caillies; Hungry Lions 1 – 2 Magesi; Cape Town Spurs 1 – 1 Pretoria University; All Stars 2 – 2 Casric Stars; TTM 0 – 1 Baroka; Venda 1 – 0 Black Leopards; Uthongathi 4 – 4 NB La Masia
Lechesa lauds Polokwane's resilience for promotion
Team to immediately start preparing for PSL
Image: BackpagePix
Following their promotion to the DStv Premiership, Polokwane City coach Duncan Lechesa says they will immediately start doing ground work to prepare for their return to top-tier football.
Rise and Shine won the Motsepe Foundation Championship title thanks to goal difference, which was better than Cape Town Spurs’ as both sides finished the campaign on 57 points.
Going into the last day, City were outside favourites to clinch automatic promotion. Four goals in the first-half from Samuel Nana, Francis Baloyi, Puleng Marema and Bulelani Nikani against Pretoria Callies at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium were enough to secure the three points and promotion.
This season had its ups and downs for the Polokwane-based side, from starting well to losing their co-coach Papi Zothwane to Uthongathi, a dark cloud of the club allegedly ill-treating visiting teams surrounded them. They also spent time without Lechesa who was sick, but they managed to pull through.
Lechesa commended the team for winning promotion and sticking to the plans put in place during his absence. “It was not an easy task, I’ve done it before with the same team and I said to them history will repeat itself. No one gave us a chance,” Lechesa told SuperSport.
“It was not easy, in the one-and-half months I was not here, they stuck to the plan and what we have been doing. When I left, they took over and never said the coach is not there. They did it for the team and the whole of Polokwane.
“The players worked very hard, we are doing something special, the only thing that we know is hard work. It’s just to go back now and plan for the PSL,” he said.
His lieutenant, Phuti Mohafe, held the forte when he was not there. “We never stopped believing, from January I have been telling the boys we are going to win the league with one point,” Mohafe said.
“I kept telling them to never lose hope. When we started dropping, we started to lose hope but we said we can’t lose hope now, we can’t let it go in the end. We led the league for 16 weeks and we have to keep believing,” he said.
NFD results:
JDR Stars 5 – 0 Platinum City Rovers; Polokwane City 4 – 0 Pretoria Caillies; Hungry Lions 1 – 2 Magesi; Cape Town Spurs 1 – 1 Pretoria University; All Stars 2 – 2 Casric Stars; TTM 0 – 1 Baroka; Venda 1 – 0 Black Leopards; Uthongathi 4 – 4 NB La Masia
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