PSL Focus: Santos v Wits

18 February 2012

PSL Focus: Santos v Wits

Venue: Athlone Stadium, Cape Town

Time: 20.15

Channel: SABC1

Santos will be looking to use their home advantage as they try and bring their torrid run of seven games without a win to an end. 

The Cape Town-based side haven’t won a game since they beat Maritzburg United back in October although they had a busy transfer window and looked a much stronger outfit in their recent game, a close 3-2 defeat at the hands of high-flying Moroka Swallows. 

Duncan Crowie seems to have lifted The People’s Team slightly since he took over from Boebie Solomons and the likes of Matty Pattison and Nasief Morris has really beefed up the Santos line-up as they attempt to lift themselves out of the precarious position that they currently find themselves in.

Gert Schalkwyk, one of the club’s new signings, thinks that Santos need the points more than their opponent and will fight in order to make sure they get all three. He told Soccer-Laduma, “Everyone is looking forward to the Wits game, we need the three points more than them and we’re going to go at them and play our game. We have a lot of experience in our side and the most important things is that we play our normal game, the only team that can beat us is ourselves. We’re confident that we can get the three points.”

Meanwhile, unlike Santos, Wits find themselves in the midst of a seven game unbeaten run and they will be looking to carry on their fine form then they come up against Crowie’s men this weekend.

A poor start to the season for The Students saw them come under scrutiny but Roger de Sa’s men turned things around towards the end of the year and they have now won four of their last seven PSL outings, although their first game of 2012 ended in a 0-0 draw with Maritzburg United earlier this week.

Wits forward, Ryan Chapman, thinks that Santos will be tough to beat although believes his teammates have what it takes to take the three points. He said, “In our last game we just wanted to get the league going again, it wasn’t a win but we were happy to get going again and we got a clean sheet. Santos have bought well, so we’ll be careful of them. Santos at in Cape Town is always a tough game but we’re just going to go out and give it our best.” 

Form:

Santos: L-L-L-D-L

Wits: D-D-W-W-D

Players To Watch:

Santos: Matthew Pattison

Wits: Ryan Chapman