Royal AM coach John Maduka is delighted Happy Jele has served his two-match suspension and the experienced defender is set to be unleashed when they host Sekhukhune United at Chatsworth Stadium on Saturday (17:30).
Jele has served a two match ban from the league after he was sent off against SuperSport United in the last game of last season with Orlando Pirates.
That ban was carried over by the league if he got a new club and as soon as he did that by joining Royal AM, the ban stood and Jele had to serve it.
Jele missed Royal AM’s games against SuperSport (1-1) and AmaZulu (1-1) this past weekend that was mired by the bad refereeing at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
“Happy Jele is okay, working hard and I’m sure you were aware that he was on suspension and we hope that he immediately finishes that, he would be available for selection,” said Maduka.
Jele will be key to Maduka’s target, who said he wants to quickly reach the 30 points mark to fight for the top eight come the end of the season.
The Shauwn Mkhize’s club, following a draw with AmaZulu, dropped to 10th in the DStv Premiership table with 26 points after 21 matches.
Maduka has prioritised that they have to win home matches to reach that points mark as soon as possible, starting with Babina Noko, who are lying seventh in the table with 27 points after the same number of games played.
“We are playing at home and it is very important that we must go for all maximum points,” said Maduka.
“The log as you can see is very tricky – you win one game, you are up. You lose one, you are down. So we have no excuse especially when we play at home. We must go all out and make sure that we win games for us to be in the safety position or to be in the comfortable position.”
Maduka will face one player who helped Royal AM finish third last season in the table – Victor Letsoalo, who left the club to join Sekhukhune.
Letsoalo was key to Royal AM’s stunning second finish last campaign, scoring 15 league goals as the club only lost two league matches the entire season.
