New coach’s baptism of fire

TWO losses and a solitary victory in their opening matches of the season prompted SAB Castle League club Manyora FC to enlist the services of a new head coach, Freddy Tjale.

However, the new broom is yet to sweep clean as Tjale had a baptism of fire with his new charges, conceding six goals in his first two matches in charge.

Manyora FC were beaten 3-1 by Bafana FC recently and, on Saturday afternoon, Tjale watched in agony as the team lost 3-0 to Shawa All Stars FC in Seshego.

In what was a battle for both clubs, it took Manyora FC goalkeeper Matome Ramokhufi just 37 minutes to make a howler of a long shot and allowed it to find the back of the net.

Seven minutes into the second half, defender Jimmy Makoro failed to clear the lines, allowing his opponents to score from a close range shot to double their lead.

Makoro put the ball past his own keeper to score Shawa All Stars’ third goal.

Asked what had gone wrong Tjale simply said: “I do not know. We have no combination and it is back to the drawing board to try to rectify the silly mistakes we make in every game”.

Pressed to reveal his strategy to turn the fortunes for the Seshego-based club, Tjale said he needed to make some changes in order to start collecting points.

“This was my second match and it is obvious that we need to sign new players.

“We need a striker who will convert all the chances we create. We need central midfielders to control the pace of the game; we need speedy wingers to trouble the opposition and bring in crosses.

“Our defence is in tatters and needs reinforcement and the goalkeeping department needs attention as well, in fact we need a whole new team to be able to compete in this league,” he said.

Head coach of Shawa All Stars Thebeng “Shawa” Legong said the win was a morale boost for the players and will build on it as they aim to make it two consecutive wins when they host Seleme FC at the Bergnek sports ground on Saturday.