Friday night football in KwaZulu Natal’s Midlands returns with John Maduka’s Maritzburg United hosting Swallows FC as they search for their first set of three points for the season.
The Team of Choice began the 2022/23 DStv Premiership season with a decent performance against Sekhukhune, as they had to fight back to get a 1-1 draw, but in the second game against Kaizer Chiefs, they saw flames as they lost by 3-0.
Maduka admitted that they made things difficult for themselves to allow Amakhosi to score those goals as he feels they were not outplayed.
“We can’t say Kaizer Chiefs outplayed us. It was our own mistake. I don’t think we played as bad to lose by three goals, but we made things difficult for ourselves and got punished,” Maduka said in a televised post-match interview.
Their first two games laid bare the need to work on their defence as they look good in the midfield and attack. They might add new faces to beef up their defence with the transfer window still open.
United are third from the bottom with one point, and they welcome a very tricky and motivated Swallows after their hard-fought win against Cape Town City.
The Friday night encounter could be the game to revive their fortunes with supporters known for making it hard for any visitors at Harry Gwala Stadium, which will be a massive boost for Maduka and his men.
Maduka will need a quick improvement as their next three fixtures will be against two teams in the same boat.
Cape Town City and Chippa United are next before the KZN Derby against his former club Royal AM, a game that all eyes will be on him after his shock resignation to join Maritzburg in June.
He guided Thwihli Thwahla to a third-place finish before dumping them.
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