Sekhukhune can bounce back like Manning Rangers did, says Truter

Sekhukhune United coach Brandon “Brakkies” Truter  believes their 5-0 humiliation by Orlando Pirates can inspire them to greatness, the same way it happened with the now defunct Manning Rangers.

Rangers lost 9-1 to Kaizer Chiefs in the Coca-Cola Cup Challenge early in the season, before eventually going all the way to win the league title in the 1996/97 term. Sekhukhune’s heavy defeat against Pirates was in the MTN8 quarterfinals at Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

Sekhukhune hope to bounce back when they take on Truter’s former side Moroka Swallows at Peter Mokaba Stadium tonight (7.30pm).

“I’d rather have this result here [in the MTN8], not in the league. I’d rather have this result early in the season, not later. The lessons we learnt [from the 5-0 humiliation by Pirates] will certainly help us going forward and we will fix the mistakes as well,” Truter said.

“I will take you back to Manning Rangers, when they won the league, I think their first league game was 5-0 against Chiefs, so it is not over yet. These lessons come early and hopefully we will grow from this.”

Truter also insinuated some of his trusted defensive soldiers may be dropped against Swallows after a rather shoddy display against the Sea Robbers in the Wafa-Wafa clash. “We pride ourselves on a solid block of back four,” the Sekhukhune tactician said.

“After so much experience between [Edwin] Gyimah and [Daniel] Cardoso [who are central defensive partners], you have [Nyiko] Mobbie as a national team regular and you have a seasoned campaign in [Siphosakhe] Ntiya [Ntiya-Ntiya at left-back] as well... and an Ivory Coast No.1 [in Ali Sangaré ] and Kamo Mokotjo in front of them [as a holding midfielder], so it [making changes] is something to look into. I am not happy with them at all and with the scoreline again, it suggests that we need to change a few things.”