Orbit coach credits coaching course for PSL promotion

A second-half strike from Letsie Koapeng was all Orbit College needed to defeat Cape Town City 1-0 at a packed Olympia Park in Rustenburg, sealing their promotion to South Africa’s top flight.

Makhoye was part of the same cohort as top local mentors including Eric Tinkler and Tlisane Motaung, and says the lessons learned shaped his tactical approach as Orbit College secured a spot in the Betway Premiership for the first time.

"I shared a class with your Eric Tinkler's of this world, your Tlisane Motaung, your Jabulani Mendu's, your Steve Barker's. So, we were learning because football is all about opinion, from that class we could see football differently,” Makhoye said.

“Now, what I've done as an IT manager, I took technology into football. Now every session, we plan, everything that we do here is a plan. When we train, everything that we see in the game is something that we've done. 

“I've analysed each and every player of Cape Town City, we knew that if you go man to man, they will sustain us and I've been doing this for the past 15 years. So, defensive wise you need players that are not lazy, that run 90 minutes. 

“What I've done this season, compared to last season, last season we were playing more of Tika Teka without purpose, playing a high line but this season, we have changed to say, now we need to protect the space behind. 

“We need to make opponents work to score against us but it's not gonna be easy to score against us and what we do is we look at the area in the pitch, we make sure that when you play, you play where we want you to play especially in the pitch. 

“After we did that, I think that's why we defended so well because everybody is working, from the striker up until the keeper. When we don't have the ball, we go 10-men behind the ball but when we have the ball, the transition, the speed, the recovery, everything is there."

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Orbit’s promotion also marks the return of Premiership football to the North West province for the first time since Platinum Stars were relegated and sold in 2018.

On whether Olympia Park will become their official home ground, Makhoye says the successful hosting of the City match is encouraging but admits the stadium will need upgrades, especially to the seating areas, to meet top-flight standards.

"The game that we played today is a PSL standard, so it's just that I think the municipality have already started working, they've been fixing the lights and everything. So, I think now it's up to them, they need to rush to make sure that when the season starts, this stadium is fixed."