Sekhukhune coach realistic ahead of Stellies MTN8 second leg

Babina Noko host Steve Barker’s side on Saturday, needing to claw back the damage from the first-leg defeat at Danie Craven Stadium last week.

There are, however, positive signs after Sekhukhune hammered newly promoted Orbit College 3-0 in the Betway Premiership midweek, and earlier in the competition, they staged a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over TS Galaxy.

Even so, Tinkler concedes repeating that feat against a disciplined Stellies outfit will be no easy task.

"Mammoth task ahead of us, not gonna be easy, watching Stellies again last night against Pirates and not an easy team to break down. Defensively they are quite organised, quite structured and obviously they are very, very dangerous on the counterattack,” Tinkler said.

“We find ourselves in this situation by giving away two silly goals away from home but now at home we need to try and rectify those mistakes. Be positive, go with a positive mentality into the game. 

“Know that we have everything to gain as long as we can get ourselves back into the game nice and early and possibly try and turn that result around but we probably gonna have to play the best football we've played this season. 

“I think obviously our game against Orbit was a lot better than what we did against Stellies. So, if we can replicate what we achieved against Orbit but raise our level even higher then we stand a chance to turn the results around in our favour.

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Tinkler knows that goals will be important and he stresses that they need to hit the back of the net early on.

"I try to treat it almost like this is the second half of the game and you're 2-0 down, exactly what happened against TS Galaxy. So, what becomes important, obviously we have to take more risk in attack,” the coach added.

“We have to be a lot braver on the ball. We have to be more assertive in attack but you mustn't be stupid, you have to be clever, you know they're gonna try and hit on the break and on the counterattack. 

“Your work ethic has to be really, really high, your concentration levels have to be very, very high but you need to be positive to be able to go out and obviously look to try and get that early goal as I said. 

“You know 2-1 lead is never as comfortable for the team that finds themselves in that 2-1 lead position. As I said, if we can get an early goal, that will put a lot of pressure on them and obviously it will motivate us even more to wanna get an equaliser."