Steve Barker confident of advancing in Confederation Cup after draw on the road

Barker and his team went all the way to the semi-finals of the competition last season, and were unlucky to get knocked out by Tanzania’s Simba SC 1-0 on aggregate. 

The coach says he was happy with how they applied themselves away from home, and thought they should have come away with a victory.

"Yeah no look it was not an easy encounter, I think a lot of difficulties within the game, weather conditions, the pitch but I think we applied ourselves well for the majority of the game,” Barker said.

“We know we were the better team, just unfortunately we were not able to convert one of the or two of the chances that we created but yeah, the players have done well to come out of these conditions having not conceded. 

“So, yeah, we are prepared and ready to take the power back home and then hopefully get the job done, so we can get to the group stages."

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Barker highlighted the importance of having kept a clean sheet, which puts them at an advantage going into the second leg next Sunday. 

That match will take place at Athlone Stadium after the club announced the unavailability of their traditional Danie Craven Stadium until the end of the year due to renovations by Stellenbosch University. 

"Yeah, I think it's always important, you know keeping clean sheets is key to winning football matches. We just need to still continue working, with our opportunities that we are creating and converting more of opportunities and just the final third,” the coach added. 

“You see making an execution, we have to continue being better at it but coming away in the circumstances that we had today, having not conceded and being in the tie still very strong was important."