THE coach of MaZulu FC, Arthur Zwane, admits that it was an uphill battle to achieve the goal set by the team management, to place the team in the top four teams in the Betway Premiership log, MaZulu FC coach, Arthur Zwane, who finished the season in fourth place in the log.
AmaZulu ended the season on a high note by defeating Durban City 1-0 in the Durban home Premiership match at Chatsworth Stadium, Durban, on Saturday, securing a place in MTN8 next season by finishing fourth in the Premiership log with 47 points.
Before the start of the season, the president of MaZulu, Sandile Zungu, made it clear that he wants the team to finish the season among the top four teams, which seemed to be an uphill battle for this team that had most of the young players with no experience.
“We thank the players for their dedication and our fans, the board and the president and everyone who was part of this team while we struggled to achieve the goal we set for ourselves as a team, to finish in fourth place, which we finally managed to achieve.
It was not easy for us to achieve the goal of Top 4 when you consider that we have a team with many young players, some of whom were playing for the first time in the professional football division this season.
So very few people believed that we would be able to achieve this goal that was set for us,” said Zwane.
He said they are committed to building on what they have achieved this season in the next season and strive to raise the level.
“We will look at where we did not do well this season so that we can come back as a better team next season.
We have goals that we have set for ourselves as a team that we wish to achieve, so we will definitely have to raise the standard next season.”
Apart from Suthu finishing in fourth place in the Premiership log, history has been recorded in that the province of KwaZulu-Natal has had three teams finish the season in the Top 8 which is the first time this has happened since the establishment of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) in the 1996/97 season.
Lamontville Golden Arrows, who drew 0-0 with TS Galaxy on Saturday at King Zwelithini Stadium in Mlaza, finished sixth with 41 points, City finished eighth with 39.
Not only did City finish in the Top 8, they also ended a 16-year drought of not winning a trophy for teams in this province by winning the Nedbank Cup by defeating Galaxy 1-0 in the final at the beginning of May.