Pirates winless on four ahead of Maritzburg trip

Orlando Pirates have now gone four games without a win in all competitions following their 0-0 draw with Diables Noirs in the first leg of the Caf Confederation Cup preliminary round stage at Stade Alphonse Massemba-Debat in Brazzaville, Congo last Friday.

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The Buccaneers last registered a victory in their 1-0 win over Swallows FC in a DStv Premiership tie back in September. 

From then, Bucs have lost and drawn two apiece . 

In their tie with the Black Devils, the home side put the South Africans under immense pressure with a counter-attacking game, but that’s something Ncikazi and the rest of his technical team are well aware of going into the second leg at the Orlando Stadium next Sunday.

“They are just a direct team, they play to get behind our defence and they play to put in crosses into the area because they have dribblers on the sides to put in those crosses,” said the Bucs mentor. 

“We will have to deal with their threat inside the penalty area and when we have the ball we must play. If we do that and we are comfortable on the ball, I think we might get the result.”

But before hosting Diables, Pirates have an away league clash with Maritzburg United on Wednesday. And the team finds itself dealing with yet more casualties, with winger Vincent Pule set to be out for some time after sustaining an injury during the international break with Bafana Bafana. 

The star winger joins the likes of Zakhele Lepasa, Thembinkosi Lorch and Innocent Maela, Richard Ofori among players missing to injuries. 

The Orlando Pirates medical department has provided an update on Vincent Pule’s injury via the club website.

“Pule who was listed in the starting line up for the FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Ethiopia, injured himself during the pre-match warm up and was subsequently dropped.”

Pirates will be eager to get back to winning ways, especially with the team having only collected nine points in their last seven domestic league games’, read the statement