Barker aims for top eight finish after great start for Stellies in Premiership

For Stellenbosch FC to be satisfied they’ve had a great 2021-2022 season they will need to get more than 40 points and finish inside the top eight for the first time since they arrived in the top flight of SA football three years ago, said club coach Steve Barker.

Barker’s team finished 10th in their debut season in 2019-20 and spent the better part of last season fighting against relegation before confirming their 14th place finish in the last round of the DStv Premiership.

The Stellies have, however, done well this season to remain in the top five, and Barker feels a win against Swallows FC at the Danie Craven Stadium on Wednesday will play a big part in giving them confidence of a top eight finish in this campaign.

“Our initial target (this season) was to get to 30 points as quickly as possible,” Barker said about his side, which has amassed 29 points in 18 league games to be placed third and 19 points behind runaway leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.

“We have a good opportunity to get 30 points and we still have 33 points to play for thereafter. A win on Wednesday (against Swallows) will probably put us in a position in which we’ll be disappointed if we don’t finish in the top eight, which will be around the 40 mark.”

Barker is happy his team, boosted by the arrival of midfielder Sibongiseni Mthethwa from the Glad Africa Championship and South American Juan Ortiz in January, has shown tremendous growth from their first two seasons in the elite league

“I think we’ve shown and improved as a squad and we have higher ambitions. But the first hurdle is to get over the 30 mark and then we would want to get to 40 as quickly as possible and hopefully still have games remaining to push on even further to ensure we have a great season,” he said.

Barker said it was important that they quickly forget their Nedbank Cup disappointment after they were knocked out 1-0 by Baroka FC at home on Friday.

“We had hoped to have a good cup run this year but unfortunately the cup competition has alluded us again,” said barker.

“The performance was sufficient enough to get us a result, but in football you’ve got to put the ball in the net, which we failed.

“When you do that than you open yourself for opposition to get a goal, which happened and was the only chance they had in the game. Unfortunately it was from our own sort of error.”

There were, however, a few good things Barker said they learned in their defeat against Baroka.

“There were a lot of positives to take from the game but it doesn’t take away the fact that we’re highly disappointed because we were expecting to have a good cup run.

“But it’s now over and we’ve got a short turn around and it’s important for us to focus our energies on the league, which is our bread and butter.

“We’ve managed to get ourselves in a strong position on the log table but it’s important we finish the remainder of the league positively, confidently and with belief we can maintain the sort of position we’re in.”

“We do understand we have to make sure we start creating and scoring more chances and having only scored 18 goals in our 18 matches is not good enough.

“We need to do better and that is a big focus. I was impressed with the two debutants (Mthethwa and Ortiz) and I think they can only continue to add value.

“We’re looking forward to the Swallows match. There’s no easy game in the PSL and we all know that. We need to pitch and put on a big performance.

“It’s a key game for us and we’d like to surpass the 30 (points) mark on Wednesday and still have 11 matches to play,” he said.