Royal AM defender Thabo Matlaba has made a huge promise to the club’s fans amid their race with Kaizer Chiefs for second place.
High-flying Royal AM is set to visit lukewarm Marumo Gallants on Wednesday and Matlaba insisted ‘Thwihli Thwahla’ must not get ahead of themselves after a great run in the DStv Premiership.
The 34-year-old, who recently joined Royal AM, believes that if they can work hard and be humble they will achieve their goal.
“To be honest we need to be humble, we need to humble ourselves not to take any team for granted cause if you can take any team for granted you will lose games that is why we very, very focused,” Matlaba told the club’s media department,
“Coach is always telling us to be focused, to take each and every game important and take each and every game seriously.”
Matlaba promised Royal AM supporters a CAF Champions League spot, with his side currently sitting in second place with 40 points, one ahead of Chiefs, who have one match in hand..
“We promise the fans that we will finish second, because we working hard we don’t want to lose any game, we going to each and every game going to win not to lose or draw. That is why it is very important for us to win each and every game,” he added
Meanwhile, Royal AM coach John Maduka, who was crowned Coach of the Month February/March, made it clear that they want to collect maximum points at home on Wednesday.
“We are expecting a very difficult game against Marumo Gallants, they are a good team, for us playing back-to-back games it’s very important for us to manage the players so that they are fresh on Wednesday,”
“But we do expect a very difficult game, but we playing at home, no excuse. We must go there and compete and try to get the points that we need. So the preparations has been going well,” Maduka said.
“Like I said there’s nothing much that we can do because we don’t have time, because of back-to-back games. So we try to rest them or use video sessions so that we show them how the opponents play and how we want to play on that particular game and see how it goes.
“But it’s our home game, we must try to get the maximum points because away from home it’s not easy. So when we play at home we just try as much as we can to win the game.
“We know the team that we playing against is a team that is using the ball so well so our plan has to be according to the way they play so that we can be able to match them.
“We will just try and put a good team together that can be able to compete with this Marumo Gallants, but it’s a team that is very comfortable on the ball and has very quick players and very good players with a good coach as well.
“So yeah, we have to plan well, dig deep and try to compete with them at the same time try to win the match.”
Royal AM will face Marumo Gallants on Wednesday evening at 17:00 in KZN.
