John Maduka: Royal AM will decide our own fate

John Maduka: Royal AM will decide our own fate

Royal AM coach John Maduka is not giving up on their target of finishing inside the DStv Premiership top-eight despite their heavy loss at home to Orlando Pirates.

The KwaZulu-Natal outfit lost 4-0 against the Soweto giants on Sunday afternoon, as Relebohile Mofokeng, Patrick Masangwanyi, Kabelo Dlamini and Talente Mbatha ran riot at Harry Gwala Stadium on Sunday. 

Maduka, addressing the media, is adamant their fate remains in their own hands as they remain four points behind eighth spot, with six games remaining.

"It's still up to us – if you look at the teams that have 32 and 33 points, they've played 25 games and we have a game in hand, so it's up to us," said Maduka.

"If we win the game on Wednesday [against SuperSport United], we go level on the same number of [points], and maybe our goal difference is not good, but we can still push on that front."

Despite their heavy defeat, Maduka remains confident they can still finish strong, with the close-nit log standings giving them plenty of hope.

We're not worried much, we're not thinking too much about who's coming behind us and all that. What we're focussed on is to try and win our games for us to be ok," he added.

"We have to win our games, and I'm happy the question is about top-eight and not relegation [because] we don't think like that – we think forward and positive.

"So we still believe that if we get two or three good games and results, we are there. That's wht I'm saying, if you see number eight [Kaizer Chiefs] – how many points do they have? They have 33 points with 25 games [played].

"We have 24 games played and we have 29 points, if we win, we are one point behind with the same number of games, and some of the teams [in the top-eight race] are still going to play us, so it's all up to us to work hard and continue playing like six cup finals."

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