The current spate of public holidays has taken its toll on our training schedule as I would have liked to have had my column up early on Wednesday morning. I have had to delay it somewhat as I felt that I needed to have a few training sessions before we could get talking on a couple of issues that have been on my mind.

Let us start by rolling our minds back a few days to Saturday’s Soweto Derby, which I felt was amongst the more competitive matches between Chiefs and Pirates that I have had the honour of being a part of. I felt that we began the game in a very positive manner and showed that even though we were missing a number of regular players, our team does possess a lot of strength in depth.

Our true star quality came to the fore in the opening exchanges as we were able to maintain control of the game for lengthy periods in the first half, apart from Serge’s goal we should have turned the screws on the opposition as we should have lead the game at least 2-0 at halftime. David Radebe made a nuisance of himself to the Pirates defence with his mazy runs and his speed really caught Pirates flat footed a few times during the first half. Also it was good to find our midfielders making their presence felt more against Pirates than they did the previous week against Santos. David Obua came to the fore with a big performance which helped a number of the guys playing around him lift their game as well. Siyabonga Nkosi had a good game overall, he played a big part in our goal as he timed Fabians pass to perfection and headed the ball across perfectly to Serge and we all know what happened after that. Credit to Serge as well for thinking quickly as he executed the goal well and credit to him in the way that he did that.

In the second half we just dissipated a bit and did not exert ourselves in the match in the manner that we did in the first forty-five minutes. We allowed Pirates the time and the space to get back at us, credit to our defence for keeping their shape and dealing with the Pirates offence in the second half. It must also be said that I thought that David Obua’s attempt at goal in the sixtieth minute, rounded off one of our best moves of the game which saw a number of our players somehow or the other involved in setting him up. David, for his part, could not have done things better - his shot was both powerful and accurate and when you have a crack at goal with such an attempt and do not find the back of the net, it is a real travesty of justice. In the end the ball rattled the post and from my vantage point it looked as though it did cross the line, but that is football though - sometimes things work out for you and on other occasions they do not.

Since joining Chiefs in March, there is one problem which I have had to contend with and that is the fact that there have been periods when we have been inactive for almost a fortnight, and at the moment we're once again faced with that dilemma as our next game is on the 13th May. Meaning that between the Orlando Pirates and Maritzburg United matches we would have been inactive for almost fourteen days, it is not good for us as we need to be playing week in and week out to keep our momentum going. Anyway we have had to make do with the current situation by keeping ourselves busy in midweek with friendly matches, on Wednesday we had a friendly match against the Madagascar national team.

They gave us a real fright in the first half when they were able to cancel out our two goals and brought proceedings back to a level pegging at 2-2. In the second half we were stronger and fought them off scoring four goals without any reply from them and all credit to the guys, we were well worth the win. I opted to give twenty one players the chance to play on Wednesday so as to keep them match fit, and I was pleased with the way the guys played. We were though just to strong for them.

To give the opposition credit, they did knock around the ball well in the first half and even when they were two goals down they did not lie down, and worked hard to find a goal and when they got one they pressed for an equalizer which they found. In the end I feel that we were just too strong for them and that they lacked the experience to carry on in the first half, where they had left off.

With the break in between matches we do have time to give some of our players the opportunity to get back their fitness and hopefully be available for the final two games of the season. Cyril Nzama is still battling with an injury and like wise Kaizer Junior and Shaun Bartlett are also working on their fitness. Although Maritzburg United are already relegated, I feel that they will go all out to try and get a win over us. For me personally I would like to win the match as I drew against one of my former clubs I would like to win this one. Playing against two of your former teams in consecutive games is really ironic and winning the game will be the cherry on the cake though.