City coach Tinkler expects a ‘tough’ AmaZulu

At this stage of the season, games tend to be harder and Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler is expecting exactly that when his charges lock horns with AmaZulu FC in the DStv Premiership tie at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Tinkler, whose side is occupying second place on the league standings, says every team is playing for something with the league campaign about to come to an end which makes games harder.
The Mother City based club has collected 48 points in 28 games, while Usuthu have registered 40 from the same number of matches and they are sitting in seventh place on the table.

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“They are going to be tough. We have come to the business end of the season where everybody is looking to finish off strong. Whether it will be in top four, top eight, to avoid relegation, or whether you are going to keep your job or not. That is just the reality of professional football, so for us it is important to focus on ourselves and not to rely on no one but ourselves.

“And to continue what we have been doing since the turn of the year. Which is believing in ourselves, working at a high intensity, the unity that we have in the squad and the confidence that we have in our own ability, but we know it is going to be a tough game,” said the Cape City coach.

“Because AmaZulu are a good team with a lot of talented players and we are going to have to be at our best, because it doesn’t matter who you play. Last week we played TS Galaxy who are at the bottom of the log and you saw how difficult the game was. You can expect an even harder challenge from AmaZulu.”

Tinkler’s City will be looking for revenge against AmaZulu, with the KwaZulu-Natal outfit having beaten them by 2-0 in the first round of the campaign.