It also means that we have progressed in another way as we have progressed a stage further in the competition than we did when we were eliminated by Celtic in the opening game of the 2005 tournament. The fact that we have been able to progress onwards in the Supa8 tournament bodes well for us as we have been able to write a new chapter for ourselves in the tournament. A chapter that we are hopeful will end on a positive note as we go in search of our first title since SAA began sponsoring the tournament, and the clubs first trophy in this competition since 2001.

Having said all of that I must admit that I was not totally pleased with our first half performance against Arrows at the FNB Stadium on Saturday, I felt that we were really slow in the opening forty five minutes of the game.

I thought that we were generally very slow our passing was slow we were moving slowly and we just were not stringing together a lot of passes, it must be said though that Siyabonga Nkosi did very well to put away the first chance that came our direction.

In the second half we played much better and we looked like a team interested in progressing to the semi finals, we improved our passing as well as the way we attacked and opened up the opposition.

Louis Agyemang did well to set up Siyabonga for our opening goal over all in the first half we just did not get into enough goal scoring opportunities, it resembled the way we played in the first half against Sundowns in the Telkom Charity Cup.

Our second half substitutes Kaizer Motaung Junior and Thabo Mooki really helped in assisting us to be more potent in the midfield as well as in attack, Kaizer got really involved in the game and he was perhaps unlucky not to have scored a goal. He did have a well taken header off a Gert Schalkwyk cross saved by the Arrows keeper.

We took a gamble on Saturday by playing Arthur Zwane as he had picked up an injury during the week, it was a gamble that paid off as he did what was required of him in the first half, with the way the game was panning out it was better to take him off at half time.

Going into the game against Arrows we were dealt another blow when we learnt that Shaun Bartlett would be better off rested for the game, as he did pick up an injury on Thursday and we were better advised not to play him. It would have been a real risk to have included him in the game and at this stage of the season we felt that it would be wiser to let him recover instead of making him play, and probably worsening the injury.

Thabo Mooki was our one casualty during the game, he pulled up with a hamstring injury towards the end of the game and the initial diagnosis is that he will probably be on the side lines for between two to three weeks.

Although it is too early to tell but I do think that he will in all likelihood miss the opening game of the season against Supersport United in Tshwane (Pretoria) at the end of the month.

Finally I would like to wish our four players in the Bafana Bafana squad for the game against Namibia this coming Wednesday the best of luck and also to Itumeleng Khune who is with the National Under twenty 20 team preparing to face Zimbabwe in the second leg of their African Youth Championship Qualifier.

With us through to the semi finals of the SAA Supa8 tournament, we will begin to focus our attention to the start of the league campaign. We are though joined by Sundowns in the semifinal’s after they defeated Santos in their quarterfinal clash on Sunday Afternoon, next Sunday will see the completion of the Supa8 ¼ Finals and we will wait for the draw on the 21st August to see who we will meet in the semi finals.

Ernst Middendorp