Truter dismisses Swallows title talk
“When you are talking about title contenders you can speak about Sundowns, Pirates and SuperSport, not us,” said the Swallows head coach.
Brandon Truter, coach of Moroka Swallows reacts during the DStv Premiership 2020/21 match between Black Leopards and Moroka Swallows at Thohoyandou Stadium, Venda, on December 20, 2020 Pic: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Swallows FC are without doubt the fairytale story of the fledgling DStv Premiership season, the Birds finding themselves level on points with leaders Mamelodi Sundowns heading into the Christmas break.
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Winning the GladAfrica Championship and the Premiership in successive seasons would be an incredible achievement for head coach Brandon Truter, but the man himself dismissed any title talk after Swallows picked up a fifth league win of the season in the heat of Thohoyandou against Black Leopards on Sunday.
“When you are talking about title contenders you can speak about Sundowns, Pirates and SuperSport, not us,” said Truter.
“We will just keep on going and do the best we can in the next match, that is the only thing that matters, only when the season ends will we see where we are.”
“We are new to this league, I am myself and a lot of players are as well. It is where we wanted to be, and we are there now, but we are not getting carried away. We are a small fish in a shark pond … we respect everyone here but we will keep going. I knew we would be competitive, we have a nice spirit, a structure and a playing philosophy and the players are enjoying themselves,” he added.
“We just didn’t expect to do so well, it is about consistency … we will see in the next 10-15 games where we are.”
Leopards took an early lead in Thohoyandou through Onyedikachi Ononogbu, but Swallows were on top for most of the game and Ruzaigh Gamildien bagged a fifth goal of the season just before half time, and Joseph Mhlongo curled in a beauty after the break to give the Birds all three points.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game, the teams at the bottom fight,” added Truter.
“It happened in the first 15-20 minutes, in that period I was a bit disappointed with us, but we didn’t really see them after that. We were dominant and it was a very good display from the boys. They gave their all, coming so far and in this heat.”
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