Tinkler – I know We’ve Put In A Protest

After drawing 1-1 against Royal AM, Cape Town City head coach Eric Tinkler says his only focus now is their next game against Mamelodi Sundowns, and he’s not thinking about the rescheduled Kaizer Chiefs game, that the Citizens are protesting.

The controversial fixture from December, where Chiefs failed to honour the game at the FNB Stadium due to the covid outbreak at the club, has been rescheduled, despite the PSL’s appeal to the High Court to have the arbitration that favoured Kaizer Chiefs set aside.

City announced yesterday that they would be protesting the rescheduled fixture.

City moved up to third, but remain four points behind second-placed Royal AM, and Tinkler was disappointed to share the spoils and not to get all three points and close the gap.

When asked by iDiski Times how he will prepare for their next ‘scheduled’ fixtures against Sundowns and Chiefs

“I approach the Sundowns game the way we had already planned and prepared,” Tinkler responded at the post-match press conference.

“We have what is it eight days, nine days to prep for that game, because the game got moved, it was supposed to be on the weekend, so now it got moved obviously to midweek.”

The rescheduled Chiefs fixture is set to be three days after the Sundowns game.

“The Chiefs game, I don’t even think about that, because that’s not in my hands,” Tinkler continued.

“That, I’ll leave to the chairman. But I know we’ve put in a protest against that. So whether that game will take place or not, is for me right now, I don’t even think about it, I think about the next game, which is Sundowns.”

Tinkler said that is the approach they have taken this season, and the players know they’ll focus one game at a time.

“We’ve been doing that now since we returned the year, where we’ve explained to the players, let’s just focus on the next game,” he said.

“Let’s first focus on us reaching that 30 point mark, once we’ve reached there, then we can start setting ourselves further targets, then we want to hit the 40 point mark, which is what we’ve done. Almost guarantees us a top-eight position.

“And then we can start now looking at can we finish in that top four? I explained to them before this game that the Sundowns game for me is a bonus. Whatever you get out of that game be it a draw or a win, that’s a bonus.

“Very important was this game (against Royal AM). We wanted to collect maximum points in this game because then we would have found ourselves at least one point behind them, not having to rely on what the Chiefs’ chaos is all about.”

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