Golden Arrows co-coach Vusi Vilakazi foresees this Abafana Bes’Thende side has the makings of emulating that of the 2020/21 season.
That Arrows side of two seasons ago finished fourth under rookie coach Mandla Ncikazi, the club’s highest finish in the PSL history with 47 points.
While they finished fourth then, they still did not match the 2002/03 season in terms of points, when they collected 51 – the highest number of points Arrows achieved in the PSL, but still finished fifth on the table.
This season, after two defeats in the first two matches against Richards Bay and Sekhukhune United under rookie coaches – Vilakazi and Mabhuti Khenyeza, concerns were raised that Arrows will struggle after losing inspirational captain Nkosinathi Sibisi, who was sold to Orlando Pirates during the off season.
However, Arrows are up and running now, even without Sibisi. After crushing Swallows 4-0 in their last league match before the international break, which led to the Dube Birds to sack coach Dylan Kerr, while Arrows have moved to fourth on the table with 11 points after eight matches.
“I think so,” said Vilakazi when asked if Arrows can be the surprise packages this season like under Ncikazi two seasons ago.
However, this side is mainly made up of young players, led by the 23-year-old captain Thabani Zuke, and Vilakazi insisted he will not put them under pressure.
“But we are not putting them under pressure,” he explained
“We didn’t get any mandate from the club but we promised ourselves that we will group our games into five and in those games we want to achieve 10 points.
“So our first five games we failed dismally and we only achieved five points. In our second one, we won the first game and then we lost to Sundowns and we won against Swallows.
“We still need to repay what we missed in the first five games in terms of adding that 10 points. If we focus on that, I think game-by-game, we can do better.”
To repay those points lost, Arrows will have to beat Cape Town City and Stellenbosch FC respectively, with all these games to be played in Durban next month.
Story by Robin-Duke Madlala (@duke_robin).
