Despite the meagre resources at its disposal, Bluebirds Ladies Football Club is poised to survive yet another season in top flight women’s football.
With only three games to go before the end of the Sasol Women’s League season, coach Malvin Khumalo said his side was poised for another great survival in their second season in this top league.
The side currently lies seventh in a league of nine teams and only needs three points in their remaining three matches to guarantee their survival for a third season.
The South African Football Association split the 18-team league into a two-stream competition that will see two bottom teams being relegated from each stream before the two streams are amalgamated into one league of 16 teams.
The other two teams to add up to 16 will come from the two-stream feeder leagues of the Absa Women’s League. “We only need one win out of the three remaining games to be guaranteed survival in the top flight league and we are confident of at least three points from one of the three matches,” said a confident Khumalo.
“We keep our fingers crossed that we get those three points from one of those matches to seal our place for a third season in the Sasol League.”
Birds’ next game will be an away match against bottom of the league Randburg side, Crusaders Ladies, and Khumalo is hoping his girls will be able to collect the maximum points he desperately needs to ensure his team’s survival in the league.
Birds and Crusaders still have a score to settle following their cancelled match a little more than a month ago. The two teams were due to play a league match at the No 3 Square Grounds, but the referee had to cancel the fixture because of a flooded section of the pitch from a leaking underground sprinkler pipe.
The mother body has recommended a replay of the fixture, but Crusaders are understood to be unhappy and are demanding that they be awarded the three points at stake.
“If we beat them in the coming second round match of the league, then the three points will be meaningless to them even if they are awarded. A replay will be a bonus to us if we can win the upcoming fixture,” Khumalo said.
