Can SuperSport United make it count against Golden Arrows to avoid PSL playoffs?

The Star

6 days ago

Matshelane Mamabolo | Published 15 minutes ago
A MATCH that was supposed to have been a celebratory event for a seasoned coach will now be played with much greater significance.
Back in February when SuperSport United hosted Golden Arrows at the Lucas Moripe Stadium, the game was all about Gavin Hunt being in charge of his 1,000th professional match.
The multiple championship-winning coach was given a guard of honour by both clubs as he walked onto the pitch, and the small crowd were on their feet applauding.
But load-shedding spoiled it all, the match being stalled midway through the first half as the lights went off.
Then that stanza was completed with the score at 1-1, following goals by Christian Saile and Willemson Ndwandwe, before the darkness and lack of a generator led to its abandonment.
Three months later, the two teams will complete the match, with just the second half to be played at noon today at the same venue.
It could well be different clubs playing this match – Hunt having long been fired from SuperSport, and his then-counterpart Musa Bilankulu demoted to the assistant role at an Arrows outfit now coached by Manqoba Mngqithi.
Back then, both sides were mid-table outfits nursing hopes of a top-eight finish.
But now they are bottom dwellers, with the KwaZulu-Natal side having a very slim chance of usurping Richards Bay in eighth place.
SuperSport, on the other hand, need to get something out of this match like the desert needs the rain, desperately.
Matsatsantsa a Pitori are in 15th place, and will go into the promotion-relegation playoffs with the two sides from the Motsepe Foundation Championship if they do not get at least a point.
On the face of it, all they need do is keep Arrows from finding their net, and the former three-time league champions would have their status secured.
But it will not be that easy, not with their recent wretched form that has seen them and victories resembling the parallel lines of the railway – destined never to meet.
After every match they've played and lost, interim SuperSport coach Andre Arendse spoke confidently that they would do better in the next one.
That has not happened, hence the situation they find themselves in.
Last weekend, after they lost 2-0 to Richards Bay, the previously confident former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper cut a sorry and dejected figure as he tried to remain hopeful.
He lamented their lack of luck, and said he hopes they will enjoy it this time around.
They better do so, given the rumours that the club's status is going to be sold to a Free State consortium that wants to revive Bloemfontein Celtic.
You can bet they will not want to buy a second division team.
It will not be stretching it to say Arendse and his team are facing the most important 45 minutes of their careers.
Will they make it count?