Derrick Spencer demonstrated that he has overcome his recent recurring problems with a hamstring injury that first began to trouble him on the 12th December during Chiefs 4-2 win over Golden Arrows, as he had to leave the match during the first half as he picked up the injury. Although he did start two matches this year when the league resumed activities just over a month ago, he was again laid low by the same injury problems and has been on the sidelines since the 20th February. He made a return to action replacing Jonathan Quartey during Chiefs recent Nedbank Cup win over Ajax Cape Town, and has set sights on starting the match when Chiefs face a resurgent Amazulu on Friday night.

Usuthu recognition

The first league match Spencer started this season was against AmaZulu on the 5th December, and he is hoping to make his first league start in over month against AmaZulu on Friday evening.

He spoke of the irony adding “it is funny that when we played Amazulu in December it was my first league start of the season, now I am looking for a comeback again against them. I feel that we are two improving teams who are looking for a way into the top which will add extra spice to the encounter, from a personal point of view I feel that we should not have given them a way back into the game when we met earlier and I want to ensure that we get three points off them on Friday. It is as simple as that”.

Hard graft

Spencer who will celebrate his 26th birthday in May will need to double his efforts to achieve his said objective of featuring in the match on Friday evening, given that Tinashe Nengomasha will be available for the game as he returns from suspension. Also with Jonathan Quartey who replaced Nengomasha during the win over Ajax and was voted as the man-of-the-match, Spencer cannot slouch around and is in a real scrap for a starting berth. He is aware of that adding “I know that it is going to be tough for me to break through because Tinashe is doing exceptionally well there’s Jonathan also in the line, as well as the guys who have been regularly like Fabian McCarthy and Moketi Tsotetsi”

Dual purpose

Derrick though is able to play in a number of positions, which does open up many more doors for him in his search for a place in the starting eleven, of this he said. “Something that I have worked hard on over the years is to become a versatile player, who can full fill a number of roles with in the team. This versatility has allowed for me to be able to play in either the centre of defense or midfield, so it opens up more opportunities for me and hopefully in time my usefulness can be seen for both club and country”.