Back in December, Eric Tinkler was thrust into the proverbial baptism of fire as Pirates coach, now he wants revenge.
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Johannesburg - The pain of that defeat clearly still lingers and Eric Tinkler would love nothing more than to get even.
“Of course it’s payback time. My first game in charge, we lost 2-0, so I’d like some revenge for that.”
Back in December, Tinkler was thrust into the proverbial baptism of fire as Orlando Pirates caretaker coach when his maiden game in the hot seat was the Soweto Derby against Kaizer Chiefs.
Amakhosi sauntered to a 2-0 win as Tinkler struggled to get the best out of a Buccaneers outfit not only reeling from the resignation of coach Vladimir Vermezovic but one also struggling to come to terms with the murder of goalkeeper and captain Senzo Meyiwa.
Three months down the line, the former Bafana Bafana midfield hardman feels he has imposed himself on a team that have finally gotten used to life without Senzo.
And he is champing at the bit to exact some revenge on the arch-enemy.
More importantly though, Tinkler takes Pirates into today’s Absa Premiership clash at the FNB Stadium intent on ensuring the league title race remains a contest until the end.
“Nobody would like to see Chiefs win the league with four or five matches still to go. So I’d like to get that revenge so that it makes the title race more interesting. I’ve had more time with the team now than when I first took over at a very difficult time for the club. The motivation is there, the players’ workrate is very high and there is an attitude of professionalism all around.
“We are going into this match with a very positive mindset because we’re better than we were in the first round derby. We would like to see this league (race) go to the wire.”
And, while they trail Chiefs by a massive 14 points with just nine matches to go before the season ends, Tinkler still fancies Pirates’ chances at the title.
“There are still 27 points to play for and we want to collect as many as we can and see how high we finish.”
To do that, though, Pira-tes will have to succeed where only SuperSport United have this season by beating an Amakhosi side that will be in high spiritafter their midweek win over Ajax Cape Town.
When they could only get a single point from their first two league matches of the year – a draw at Bloemfontein Celtic and defeat by SuperSport - there was suddenly concern the runaway lead that had appeared seemingly unassailable could be destroyed like it happened last season.
But on Wednesday night Stuart Baxter’s men dished out a disciplined performance to eke out a result against Ajax to set themselves up nicely for this afternoon’s clash.
Not that Baxter was ever perturbed; not even when they lost and talk of Mamelodi Sundowns catching them took momentum. Bidvest Wits’ win over Pitso Mosimane’s Brazillians to cut Chiefs’ lead down to just seven points did not have Baxter tossing and turning in his sleep.
“To be getting excited because we dropped a point will be a waste of energy. So all I do is just be aloof of the talk (about the championship race) so I don’t get caught up in it all,” said Baxter.
“We don’t need to be looking at other results, we can just totally focus on our job and it is a nice situation to be in.”
Tinkler is, however, intent on making Amakhosi’s situation atop the Premiership table a little less “nice” by leading the Buccaneers to victory this afternoon.
It will take some doing, though.
Saturday Star
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