Safa provincial secretary Willem Coetzee spoke about the permutations towards the season’s play-offs for the dual stream league saying there would probably be a nail-biting race to the title.
NC Professionals FC (NC Pros) of Olifantshoek will be looking to consolidate their position at the top of the ABC Motsepe League table on Saturday as they travel to meet Kakamas Sundowns at their home base in the first of three remaining games of the season.
NC Pros, who currently lead the nine-member coastal stream log with 32 points from 10 wins out of 13 matches, will on Saturday match up with sixth-placed Sundowns in Kakamas.
Kakamas Sundowns will be looking to avoid a further slide downwards in the rankings while NC Pros, on the other hand, have much to gain this weekend. They are fresh from a goalless stalemate last week against league rookies Upington City FC.
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Second-placed Upington City probably regrets the chances they allowed to go begging in that outing against NC Pros. Upington City, whose management has thus far shied away from the media spotlight, are an ambitious team formed from the ashes of the erstwhile Khumalo Chiefs whose status they took over about a year ago.
They will be looking to close the five-point lead NC Pros have on them by taking out Kakamas Juventus in their 3pm appointment at the MD Jacobs Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Upington City’s only advantage compared to NC Pros is that City have a game in hand. They have played 12 matches from which they won nine matches which shot them up to 27 points.
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Safa provincial secretary Willem Coetzee who remarked at length on the permutations towards the season’s play-offs for the dual stream league he administers spoke about the nail-biting race to the title.
“For now it looks as though NC Pros are going neck and neck with (Upington) City,” he said. “Either one or both of them are likely to land in the league play-offs. This means we must also look at the other stream and see who they are likely to come up against in the play-offs.”
In the inland stream Kimberley’s Real Madrid lead the inland conference with 27 points coming from their eight wins out of 13 games. Madrid are separated by a mere two points from their rivals and neighbours Colville United who have amassed 25 points made up of seven wins from 13 matches.
There too Coetzee observed that United are looking good. “Colville United have made remarkable progress this season compared to the three previous years where their performance lacked urgency and they stayed at mid-table for a long period.
“Madrid have been consistent throughout,” he added. “It is not for the first time that they are in the top tier of the league.”
Coetzee announced that the league has tentatively reserved March 26 as the date for the last matches this season. The play-offs have also provisionally been set down forApril 9 at an as yet unknown central venue, he told the DFA.
