No motivation woes at promotion-chasing Milford

Milford coach Xanti Pupuma will have no problem motivating his players as he looks forward to their next Betway Premiership promotion-relegation clash at home to Magesi in Richards Bay on Wednesday.

Both Milford and Magesi have opened their account with victories over Cape Town City. Milford won in Cape Town on Tuesday and Magesi were 2-0 home winners on Saturday.

“It's very easy to motivate them for these games,” said Pupuma of his players.

“Most of them have never been exposed to this situation, and most of my players are around 30, and they know deep down that is their priority.

“This is their only chance of trying to get to PSL, so that alone is a motivation for us, and then these are guys that have been playing together for some time, coming up from the amateur ranks, and they've been playing football all their life, so they know what to do in this kind of situation.

“I'm banking on the experience that they acquired while playing amateur football, and then getting over the line,” added the coach, who is also the club owner.

“I think, personally, for the NFD teams, they are at an advantage going into the playoffs, because they have been winning to get where they are, while the PSL team is the one that has been losing games and ending up in the position that puts them in the playoffs.

“But I think it depends on how a person approaches it, the players, whether you look at it as a continuation of the league or as a completely different setup, where you need to sort of periodise a bit different from how you normally do with the league, which is what we've done with the team.

“We've sort of shut away what we did in the league, and our plan is just based on the mini tournament and what we need to do, the sessions that we need to have, how to have those sessions, and based on us just playing a mini tournament rather than a continuation of the league.”

Pupuma said if promoted Milford would not be looking for a major overhaul of the club.

“We're coming back on July 3. We will have about four weeks before the PSL games, whereas if we're still in the NFD, we'll have about six weeks, which gives us enough time.

“As for planning, like who to sign? I think the players that we have identified, we sort of told ourselves that, regardless of where we play, we're going to try and approach them, but we're not a team that really goes after former PSL players.

“We prefer taking the people around us, or even from lower league, so we've got players that have been approached already, and they can assist us, regardless of where we play next season. So that is already in motion, regardless of what happens with the playoffs,” Pupuma added.