Barker draws courage from first win over Bucs

Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker appears to be drawing confidence from the fact that they’ve already beaten Orlando Pirates this season as the two sides meet again, now in the first leg of the MTN8 semifinals, at Athlone Stadium on Sunday (3pm).

Stellies managed a 1-0 win over Pirates in a league opener early last month at Danie Craven Stadium. “We all know Pirates are a really good team, who are in good form and the defending champions [of the MTN8],” Barker said.

“They come off a good win midweek [where they outwitted Cape Town City 2-0], so there’s a lot of confidence and belief in the Pirates team but probably they had the same belief when they came here at the beginning of the season [as they beat them 1-0]. We just have to put in a committed good performance and start taking chances.”

Stellies head into this Wafa-Wafa clash licking their wounds after suffering a 2-0 defeat at home to Kaizer Chiefs on Wednesday, where they played the last 35 minutes a man down after Devin Titus was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Pule Mmodi and Christian Saile were on target for Chiefs.

It was a third match on the trot that Stellies finished a game against Chiefs with 10 men. Barker sarcastically indicated his goal the next time they face Amakhosi would be to finish the game with 11 players, insisting their performance was good enough to yield a positive outcome. 

“It will be nice to finish a game with 11 men against Chiefs, it’s been a while. That must be our first objective next time we play them. We just have to continue believing and continue playing the way we are. We will win a lot more football matches than we will lose,” Barker said.

"If you play this game 10 times, on evidence that was shown this evening, we will win it more often, so I can’t complain about the performance and the will to try and get something from the match.”