Bay pursue another victory to avoid axe

With a belief now in the Richards Bay camp that they can avoid the playoffs in the DStv Premiership, they will be heading into tomorrow's penultimate round of fixtures against Cape Town City at Cape Town Stadium at 3pm, looking for back-to-back victories to keep their chances of survival alive.

In their last five matches, Bay have registered three victories, a draw and a defeat to give them confidence that they can survive the chop. Those victories came against Kaizer Chiefs, AmaZulu and Orlando Pirates, drawing with Polokwane City and losing to Cape Town Spurs in the other match.

That win against Pirates this past weekend has given them hope that they can avoid the playoff as they are now two points behind Royal AM, who are 14th on the table.

Royal could find themselves dragged into the playoff spot should they fail to beat Chippa United at home and the Natal Rich Boyz win against the Citizens.

There are only two points separating Royal and Bay in the log table. Thwihli Thwahla have lost their last five matches and cannot afford another defeat tomorrow against the Chilli Boys.

Although the Natal Rich Boyz's away form has not been great, with only two wins on the road, they will draw some confidence from their recent success against the Buccaneers when they beat them 1-0 at Orlando Stadium.

They will aim to defeat the Citizens and hope that Royal stumbles at home against tricky Chippa United. City's form has been poor this year with only a single victory, and that was against Moroka Swallows, and Bay will fancy their chances of snatching a victory.

Thwihli Thwahla coach John Maduka admitted that their match against Chippa is a must-win if they are to avoid dropping into the playoff spot.

"We have a home game against Chippa and it is one that we have to win," Maduka said. "We can't wait for others to do it for us. We can do it ourselves. We have two points difference and two games left."

Bay will put their hopes on midfielder Sanele Barns to continue with his impressive performance and lead them to another victory after scoring the winner against Pirates last week.