“We had them on the ropes for most of the first half, but we took our foot off the pedal and made life difficult for ourselves”
STELLENBOSCH FC coach Steve Barker was a happy camper after his team won a third Premiership match on the trot.
The top-flight rookies saw off relegation-threatened Polokwane City 1-0 at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday to complete a season-double over their Limpopo-based rivals. They won their first encounter 2-0.
“After we started the year off with back-to-back home defeats, I had a chat to the boys and said we need maximum points from our three matches to get away from the danger zone, and we’ve achieved that,” said Barker. “We started out with a 4-1 win at Highlands Park and then beat Baroka FC 1-0 at the Athlone Stadium.
“Six valuable log points in the bag and three more required to complete our mission.
“And that we did, but not before a couple of tense moments against a Polokwane side that pushed us hard in the second half.
“We had them on the ropes for most of the first half, but we took our foot off the pedal and made life difficult for ourselves.
“Our goalkeeper Lee-Raoul Langeveldt rose to the occasion again with a couple of brilliant saves.”
Barker (pictured) said the goal for the season was to end up with 33 points which he thought would be enough to avoid the drop back to the First Division. They’ve got 23 of them with 10 games left.
Goal-scorer Ovidy Karuru made his run-on debut for the Winelands side against Highlands.
The former Kaizer Chiefs marksman was on hand to meet and finish off a square ball into the box from striker Iqraam Rayners in the 60th minute.
