We're running our own race – Makhoye

Orbit College coach Pogiso Makhoye has insisted that they're running their own race, aiming to improve their last season's records without obsessing about dethroning Milford at the top of the Motsepe Foundation Championship (MFC).

Orbit, who were one of the early season promotion hopefuls last term until they tumbled in the second round to eventually ninth in what was their maiden season in the division after promotion, missed a chance to be joint-leaders with Milford at the weekend after drawing 1-all at home to fellow promotion chasers Durban City. Milford had lost 2-1 away to Hungry Lions earlier on before second-placed Orbit drew against Durban.

“We are not looking at Milford. We are looking at ourselves. I've told the boys that last season by this time, after 11 games, we were on 23 points [they are on 20 points now after 11 games],'' Makhoye told Sowetan yesterday.

“After 14 games, we were on 25 points, so we are looking at the next three games to make sure we at least match last season's tally after those 14 games. We are running our own race. We want to be better than last season.''

Orbit coach is confident that the experience they gained last season as rookies will come in handy this time around, explaining how not being used to playing many games and travelling complicated things for them in their first season in the MFC.

“This season is different from last season. Remember last season we were new in this league and we were used to playing 16 games in a season for the past three seasons, so playing 30 games was difficult for us. We started struggling after 21 games because the players weren't used to travelling and they were just fatigued. Now we are used to everything and the experience we got last season will help us a lot this season,'' Makhoye said.

“We've also changed how we play. Last season we struggled to play without the ball even when we dominated but we've now improved on that. We are also tight at the back now... last season we conceded 40 goals and scored 30 and this season we don't concede easily.”

Results

Leruma 0-0 Highbury; Orbit 1-1 Durban; Kruger 2-0 AmaTuks; JDR 2-1 Venda; Leopards 1-1 Upington; Lions 2-1 Milford; Casric 1-2 Callies; Spurs 1-1 Baroka.

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