Ndah convinced Bucs can still topple Downs

Orlando Pirates defender Olisa Ndah strongly believes the Buccaneers can topple Mamelodi Sundowns from the summit of the DStv Premiership table,  insisting the 10-point difference between them is “really nothing”.

“It [the gap between them and Sundowns] is 10 points and we have like 15 games to play [in fact, Pirates are left with 14 matches while Sundowns still have 16 games to play in the league]. I really don’t think the league is over yet. Ten points is really nothing. Maybe if it was like two or three games left I’d have said it’s over for us,” Ndah told Sowetan during Pirates’ recent visit to AB Xuma Primary School in Orlando East, Soweto, where they donated school shoes alongside one of their main sponsors Vodacom.

Ndah conceded they didn’t do well towards the end of the first round of the campaign, viewing the second half of the season as a perfect chance for redemption as there’s also the Nedbank Cup to defend. The Nigerian defender also knows their goals won’t be achieved without focus and dedication.

“We didn’t really finish the first round of the season the way we’d have wanted but we have the second round to redeem ourselves. We still have a lot of things to fight for, there’s still the Nedbank Cup as well. It will take a lot of focus and dedication from us to give it a real go in both the league and the Nedbank Cup. We are ready for that,” Ndah said.

Having missed the first five league games of the season due to a knee injury, Ndah has bounced back strongly, starting all the league games since October. The 26-year-old centre-half reckons his mental strength helped him a great deal to recover and get back into the starting line-up immediately, also giving credit to Bucs’ physiotherapists.  

“It was more like a mindset thing. I didn’t let the injury weigh me down and the team, especially the physios ... they helped me a lot, particularly Mr [John] Williams [who’s one of the club’s physios],” Ndah said.