Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has given an update on Kgaogelo Sekgota’s progress at the club and insisted Ismael Toure shouldn’t beat himself up for the own goal he scored in the DStv Premiership match against Polokwane City.
After joining Stellies from Chiefs towards the end of last season, Sekgota was also playing his second match in maroon but couldn’t prevent his side from losing 1-0 on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old joined Stellies on a free transfer but Barker says the winger is still not match-fit and will become much better for his side.
“He is getting there, obviously he hasn’t played a lot of matches,” he told journalists.
“Whilst he was away in Tanzania and Botswana [with Chiefs] he wasn’t really playing, starting matches or even coming on.
“So he is not match-sharp or match-fit as we would like him to be. So you know there is still a lot of work that he still needs to do.
“He had some decent moments, nice and positive but yeah he will get better.”
Meanwhile, new centre-back Toure, who also was only playing his second game for Stellies, scored the only goal of the match via an own-goal, which followed a Man of the Match performance in the opener against Orlando Pirates in the Winelands.
But the coach says the club won’t use the own goal against him and they need to analyse what went wrong that led to the goal.
“These things happen. You know he was man of the match on the weekend against Pirates he was really good the whole match,” added Barker.
“So he tried to defend a really good cross and unfortunately he scored in his own net. These things happen and we won’t hold it against him or anything.
“We got to look at what led to the ball getting out wide and the player having space and time to get across, that’s probably more important.”
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Stellies return to action on Sunday when they will face SuperSport United in the MTN8 quarter-final.
