Maritzburg to stay up says coach

Maritzburg United coach Ernst Middendorp has not won any of his first five matches in charge since his return to the club, leaving the club still firmly bottom of the Premier Soccer League, but is still confident the tide will turn and the club survive.

With 13 matches left in the league season, time is running out for Maritzburg, who have a single victory to show for their 17 league games so far this season and are five points adrift at the bottom with just eight games.

Middendorp said he was implementing changes to his side “on the run” as he attempted to haul the club from the brink of the abyss.

“Normally you would do these things during pre-season preparations when you don’t have PSL games to try and put some stuff together but we’ve had just five weeks to try and sort out our problems,” he said.

“I think we’d all agree that the likes of Sundowns, Chiefs, Pirates, SuperSport, in terms of their potential are definitely teams that can beat any other team wherever they are playing. We have had to play all of these teams in our first games (of the new year). I’m not saying the other teams we are going to face will be easier but I believe there is progress. Before December this team (Maritzburg) scored 0,63 goals per game, now we have an average of two goals per game. I think that tells a story in terms of which direction we are working on,” Middendorp added.

“We definitely have our problems in the centre, there’s no doubt about it. But we are working on it; we are trying to put a decent structure into place to make it a bit more settled.

“Of course we are sitting in a psychological line at the moment but we need one game, and three points, to change the mentality inside the team. I definitely see progress after five weeks and six days in the job.”

The coach called for big home support when Maritzburg play next, at home to Platinum Stares on Saturday night at the Harry Gwala Stadium.