Promotion would heal Milford’s pain and honour fallen heroes – Dr Pupuma

Tragedy struck the Motsepe Foundation Champions log leaders last month, after they lost their club’s CEO, Mlibo Pupuma, and, a few days later, their conditioning coach, Mxolisi Mchunu, as well.

This was a big blow to the team’s ambitions as they aim to become the fifth topflight team in KwaZulu-Natal. 

The club’s head coach and chairman, Xhanti Pupuma explains...

"We are going through a tough time but it's not going to last 6 months or a year, it's something that is going to stay with us for a long long time. We just have to find a way to live with it.

"We hope to get the team promoted for the guys that have fallen, and that will go a long way towards dealing with the pain but it can never really heal the wound that has affected us."

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With still 13 matches to go in their league programme, and 39 points to fight for, Pupuma says consistency is going to be the order of the day to assure that there will be two topflight teams in Richards Bay come next season.

"Consistency is the key, but it's very difficult to be consistent and string together four or five wins in this division. my assessment is that if you can string together three wins and two draws in five games, you've done really well.

"We are still on track with our plan from the beginning of the season. Unfortunately we lost a few key players today, we are going to have to make a plan with a few of the young boys who are coming through to help with the rotations."

Milford will be one of the 16 teams in tonight’s draw in the Nedbank Cup for the last 16 stage after they were dragged all the way to penalties by Gauteng based ABC Motsepe League side SSU M-17 in Soweto.

Usually, teams that are vying for promotion don’t prioritise this tournament as they try to avoid distraction, but Pupuma says at Milford, they have a different plan inspired by an old concept from American Football.

"We have a system and a structure that we worked during pre-season, based on how American football is played and how rotation happens. It's based on that 2007 Cowboys team, so we have players who deserve to be in the squad and we will use them in cup games and rotation purposes. I'm happy that everyone has been exposed to football this season."

After watching one of the National First Division (NFD) teams (Lerumo Lions) get knocked out by a second division team (Mkhambathi FC), Milford survived a similar scare last night at Dobsonville stadium.

Pupuma, a gynecologist by profession, says this is a game they could’ve wrapped up in 90 minutes.