Polokwane City aim to end winless streak against Golden Arrows

Phuti Mohafe and his Polokwane City are looking to end a wretched run of form that has seen them go winless in their last six matches when they host Golden Arrows at the old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Wednesday.

Despite that poor form, City have managed to hold on to their Top 5 position in the league, with 10 matches of the campaign left. It is a position they would love to retain and probably even improve on. To do that, however, Rise and Shine will need to quickly get back to their earlier form, which saw them punching above their weight and, at some stage, sitting in third place on the table.

It will take some doing and perhaps an Any Given Sunday-type team talk from Mohafe to inspire his team to dig deep and find the opposition net in a way they’ve not been able to in recent matches.

Having last won a match back in January, when they beat Chippa United 1-0, the Polokwane outfit have fired blanks four times in league matches, losing to Richards Bay and Magesi while drawing with TS Galaxy and Marumo Gallants. They were beaten 2-0 by Stellenbosch FC in the Nedbank Cup, but in their last outing, City did score as they held the Cape Winelands team to a 1-1 draw.

Mohafe will no doubt see that as a sign of improvement and use it as motivation — a reminder to his players of their ability to find the opposition net.

They welcome an Arrows side that they played to a goalless draw back in December. Having done that on the road, they must surely believe they can get the better of Abafana Bes’thende in their own backyard.

Arrows, though, will be cock-a-hoop, coached as they are by a man on a mission to prove just how good a coach he is despite suggestions to the contrary. Manqoba Mngqithi returned to the club last week and began his third tenure there with a 1-1 draw against a Mamelodi Sundowns side that had sent him swelling the ranks of the unemployed by firing him and replacing him with Portuguese coach Miguel Cardoso.

Granted, there were some refereeing controversies that left Sundowns feeling robbed. Mngqithi, however, will not be bothered by those as he seeks to make this two-match trip to Polokwane a successful one.

They play Polokwane City tonight and will then tussle with Magesi FC at the weekend. If they secure those six points, hope of a top-eight finish will spring eternal for a club that still has two outstanding matches after their clashes with Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United were canceled due to bad weather and a power failure, respectively.

It makes for a fascinating clash, with both sides eager to get back to winning ways.

In another match tonight, Eric Tinkler is expected to make his debut on the Sekhukhune United bench when they clash with Marumo Gallants.