The fact that Kaizer Chiefs defensive stalwart Fabian McCarthy has begun his fifth season with The Amakhosi has afforded him with the experience of knowing that Chiefs will not do themselves any favours by taking their opponents this weekend in the form of Benoni Premier United lightly.

McCarthy and his teams mates though are ready for the challenge of the PSL new boys, and are wary of any potential Banana proverbial peels that this encounter could prove to be.

Speaking after training on Thursday morning, looking ahead to Sunday’s game in Germiston McCarthy said “ for a team like Benoni a game against Chiefs is like a Cup Final for them”.

As McCarthy continues on “coming up against Chiefs is motivation enough for United to play above what is expected, I was once upon a time a player at a smaller club and I know whenever we played against Chiefs we gave everything that we have”.

After their opening day draw against Ajax Cape Town, Fabian is convinced that Benoni United have sent out a message, to all and sundry in the league that they are not going back down to the lower divisions. “I think that we got a clear message from them that they not here to go straight back down, they want to stay up for a long time they are willing to fight for their right to stay up,” added the Chiefs defender.

The Amakhosi do have one advantage in that they do know their opponents better than perhaps Benoni’s opponents on the opening day, Fabian divulges more “over the past couple of months we have played against them a number of times in friendly matches. Even though they were friendly or practise games it afforded us insight into their strengths and weaknesses, though they might be a closed book for many we do have the experience of having seen up front what they are capable of”.

As McCarthy explains The Amakhosi are leaving nothing to chance as they go in search of their first win of the season, as he said “the coach prepares thoroughly for all of our games. He has briefed us on what to expect and they might be fired up because they playing against Chiefs, so are we as we want to send out a message to the other teams that we are ready to make a serious challenge for the title”.

With the opening game out of the way Fabian believes that Chiefs will go from strength to strength over the next couple of weeks saying “we will use Sunday’s game to get our first win of the season and use it as a launch pad for a string of victories over the next month or so. For us to be successful this season we need to go a couple of games with out dropping any points, we can use our PSL experience to our advantage on Sunday and begin a run of victories which will easily put us in the driving seat early on in the title race”.

The Amakhosi meet the Rabbits this weekend at what could possibly be the biggest crowd at a soccer match on Gauteng’s east rand, as Fabian McCarthy and friends aim to find Chiefs first three points of the season. The game against Benoni United is the begging of a seven-day three match programmes, which will see Chiefs also face Jomo Cosmos in Johannesburg next Wednesday and Ajax Cape Town in Kimberley exactly one week after their game against Benoni United. Chiefs will be looking to start and end the week with a victory and yield nine valuable points, out of their upcoming games.