The Buccaneers start the quest for  their third treble against Bloemfontein Celtic in the MTN8 quarterfinals at Orlando Stadium and the coach said his charges must forget  about last season’s success and focus on the new job at hand.

The Peruvian is well aware that every team will want to beat his side this season and no doubt Celtic will be aiming to end their domination in cup competitions, but has vowed that his team will be up for the challenge throughout the season.

 
“Everything has gone well,” said Palacios. “I think our pre-season was perfect; the spirit of the players is very high. But we have to keep things simple. This is a new season, the past is  history and our players know very well that the treble is in the past.

 
“Now we start  afresh and we are taking this competition very seriously. This is a new season and every player is committed to achieve things at the club and we  have quality players here.”

Celtic have regularly failed to win against Pirates at Orlando Stadium, but Palacios is not reading too much into that as he believes Celtic will pose a difficult threat this evening.

 
“We have a difficult game against Celtic,” he said. “They have signed   very good players during the off-season and it will be tough. But we are prepared well for this game and we  are looking forward to yet another tough match.”

The Buccaneers come into the tie on the back of two successes in the pre-season having won the Mbombela Cup and the Carling Black Label Cup, but Palacios is aware that the real business starts today.

But Celtic coach Clinton Larsen said his side were not planning anything different and that they would go into  the match with less pressure than Pirates.

“Pre-season has gone pretty well,” Larsen said. “Fortunately for us we managed to get our new players in before the pre-season start and hopefully they will be settled in well for this  game.

 
“Once again we have a tough match against Pirates. Obviously we are underdogs and they are under pressure to win.

 
“But  are looking forward to have a go at them.”

Larsen said playing against Pirates in the season opener will be the right test for his side to see how they will perform this season and that they are ready to cause an upset   early in the season.

 
“We know they have signed new players but we know the core of the team from last season,” he said. “They will play the same. We know Augusto is now in his second season and we are quite  confident that we can get a results.

 
“We know that if you want to win the trophy you have to beat the best. Pirates are the best team in the country at the moment and if we want to win the trophy we have  to beat this hurdle.”