The period for registering new players or the transfer window as we would like to call it closed at the start of this month and many people have posed a question to me, wondering why we did not make any last minute additions to our squad.

That is of course excluding Rotson Kilambe, the reason is that I felt that in all areas we were well balanced and we did not need any additions to our team which is why we opted to keep things the way they were.

Whatever adding and subtracting I thought needed attention was completed at the end of last season when we roped in three new players; unfortunately we did not get to keep Papi Zothwane that issue is for another forum.

Overall through the preseason and the start of the league also looking back at the SAA Supa8 I felt that as a unit we had worked together for a year and we needed some fine tuning.

Thus the addition of the likes of Shaun Bartlett and Siyabonga Nkosi who could add the spice that was perhaps missing from us last season, and then there was the late signing of Rotson Kilambe.

Rotson’s signing was a strategic one which allowed us to add an extra experienced striker to our squad one who could probably link up well with all of our front men, in particular Shaun Bartlett, as I do feel that together Rotson and Shaun will be able to form a deadly and lethal strike partnership.

Our aim this season is to win the Premier League title and with the right balance in our team with a mix of youth and experience we definitely have the ingredients for a successful season. Now we need to stir the ingredients together to come up with the perfect championship winning broth, a key ingredient of which is winning games.

This Sunday we have a game which is a must win for us in many ways as we are looking for our first victory of the season, also it is the start of a seven day three game programme for us.

Therefore to lay the ground work for a successful week we need to come away from Sunday’s game with three precious and valuable points. Benoni United are new to the PSL and we saw their first game and played them in a friendly game not so long ago so we are aware of the challenge that they pose, we did notice in their first game.

That once they had gone a goal down in their first game, they came together got control of the game slowed the game down to their pace and then eventually got the result that they wanted and ended their first game in the top flight all square.

I do feel that we are experienced enough to know that when we do take the lead we can not sit back and allow our opposition to claw their way back into the game, we will need to be decisive early on and take the lead.

We have Patrick Mayo back from a family bereavement he will use his experience at the back to help us keep shape in defence, Thabo Mooki as well is fit and we can count on our experience to pull us through on Sunday.

We are playing the game in a small Stadium in Germiston and I know that we will have the lion’s share of support there, the ground is compact and the noise from the crowd will really play a big role in assisting us during the game.

I did have the opportunity to go and inspect the pitch at the Germiston Stadium and I must say that it is in decent shape; the pitch is well grassed and is very flat unlike some of the bumpy pitches that we have played on in recent times.

Sunday’s game will be an entertaining one as they will try and keep us down, we do have the advantage of having played against them in friendly games so I do not for see us having too many difficulties coming back with three points on the weekend.

Finally I was fortunate enough along with my assistant coach Frank Eulberg to have been able to attend a gathering of all PSL coaches with new Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira which happened to be our second meeting with him in three days.

The rest of the coaches from the other teams in the league were also present and it was nice to get to have a few words with the guys as we compared notes and had a couple of words regarding the season ahead. Over all I think that all the coaches are of the same opinion and that is to expect a scintillating and sizzling season ahead.

For us we will be out for a victory on Sunday and I am sure we will have to make some changes to our personnel prior to our first home game of the season when we face Jomo Cosmos on Wednesday night, three days after we meet Benoni United.

Keep up the support and keep on sending me your letters

Your coach




Ernst Middendorp