Šafranko: Sundowns Is Not A Small Team

Mamelodi Sundowns striker Pavol Šafranko says he’s thrilled to have scored upon his return from injury and emphasised that competition is tough as he’s not playing for a ‘small team’.

The 27-year-old joined the club in the off-season surrounding much fanfare due to his reported R12-million transfer fee to rope him from Romanian club Sepsi OSK.

However, the target-man has been in and out of the starting line-up as he continues to settle into his new surroundings and after a lay-off with a hamstring, he returned to score in the 5-0 rout of Summerfield Dynamos on Saturday evening at Loftus Versveld.

“I feel fine, I haven’t played in a long time because I was injured so it was nice to be on the pitch and to score,” he told the club’s website.

“Sundowns is not a small team, we have very good players and if you’re out for even one day, the next four guys are waiting for their chance and they will play well. It’s not that easy to come back, but I will do my best and work hard.”

The Slovakia international striker went on to laud the Masandawana technical team for his goal, stating they, along with Gaston Sirino, who scored and registered three assists in a Man of The Match display, made things easy for him.

“Credit must go to the coaching staff, as well as the analysts because when we watched this team’s videos they said in the set-pieces, more especially the free kicks, the far post is always free so I was thinking about it and Gaston gave me the perfect pass and it was not so hard to score from this.”

Šafranko has scored six goals this season in 21 games, 11 of which were from the starting line-up since his arrival in July last year.

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