Stellenbosch coach pleased with performance despite dropping home points

Stellenbosch failed to win yet another home game on Wednesday when Durban City held them to a goalless draw, and as result dropped down to 14th place in the Betway Premiership, but coach Steve Barker was pleased with his team’s endeavour.

“I think if one looks at the game from our perspective, I think one could see that there was one team really desperate to win a football game,” Barker asserted after the clash at the Danie Craven Stadium.

“I think we showed endeavour, we showed the sort of the commitment that's required, and that Stellenbosch has always prided itself in, and just everybody working for each other, pushing for each other, and we tried everything.”

Stellenbosch continued, however, to struggle in front of goal and have scored only three times in eight league games.

“What we need to do better going forward is when we are in control of games to be creating better opportunities than what we are.

“It became a game where I felt that we just needed to be a little bit more direct, try and play it a bit earlier, try and turn their defenders, try and force them into errors. And I think with a little bit of luck, we could have got a goal somewhere in that sort of last 30-35 minutes,” he added.

But after last weekend’s loss at home to Richards Bay, Barker felt this was a turning point.

“The first step in the right direction is not to have conceded. We've been conceding sloppy type of goals. So, keeping a clean sheet was important for us. It's a step in the right direction. Now it's about continuing that but also finding some solutions higher up the pitch in terms of creating and scoring more,” the coach said.