Five battle to avoid wooden spoon

Five battle to avoid
wooden spoon

SOCCER 10 SET TO HIT R2-MILLION!

By Mark Gleeson and Nick Said

The battle against relegation is as much at the top of the DStv Premiership agenda tomorrow as will be the efforts of the likes of Cape Town City, Kaizer Chiefs and Royal AM to finish in the runners-up slot.

There are five clubs in the fight against the drop but because of Orlando Pirates’ involvement in the African Confederation Cup semi-finals second leg tie on Sunday, Maritzburg United are not playing tomorrow.

Bottom placed Baroka FC have home advantage over SuperSport United but are two points adrift. They blew the chance to significantly close the gap between themselves and the other relegation candidates when they let a late lead slip at Chippa United last time out, but that point keeps them alive.

A point is likely no good for Baroka, who must travel to Maritzburg United on the final day of the season having taken only three out of 42 points on the road this campaign.

Another key clash will be second from bottom Swallows FC at home against Chippa United, who can still be dragged into the last two places.

Swallows scrambled a 2-2 draw against SuperSport in their previous game and likely need four points from the last two matches to be confident of safety. But even that might not be enough.

They have a big chance for three points when they host fellow strugglers Chippa, where a win would move them to within a point of the Chilli Boys and potentially clear of automatic relegation.

The Birds will not want to leave themselves needing too much to do on the final day of the season when they travel to Kaizer Chiefs, no matter how inconsistent the AmaKhosi have been, especially at home.

Chippa will be buoyed by their last-gasp point against Baroka and know that one more at Swallows FC will end any threat of relegation this season.

A draw would make it mathematically impossible for either Baroka or Swallows to overhaul them on the final day and the way this Chippa side sets up with an ultra-defensive style, they are well-equipped to get it.

Four of their five wins this season have also come on the road and they know Swallows will have to come at them.

TS Galaxy were the only one of the bottom five not to pick up points in the previous round of matches as they lost 2-0 at Cape Town City.

That ended a bit of a purple patch for the side, but back at home they will hope for victory against Marumo Gallants, who have been in poor league form lately despite their passage through to the Nedbank Cup decider.