Baroka star declares war on play-offs opponents

Baroka FC captain Ananias Gebhardt has reacted with joy to the club's recent achievement as they wait to see which topflight side will join them and University of Pretoria in the play-offs.     

Royal AM and Richards Bay FC are the two teams looking to avoid the tricky play-offs ahead of this weekend's fixtures.

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"The playoffs became our next target immediately it became obvious to us all that we were no longer going to gain straight promotion," Gebhardt admits, in his conversation with this website.

"Achieving that felt more like ticking all your boxes. We're just happy that by God's grace, it happened.

"So, any one of the two PSL clubs can come, we can fight on the pitch, it's fine. The reason we are in the play-offs in the first place is because we want to go to the PSL, we want to go to where there is plenty of teams of Richards Bay and Royal AM calibre.

"Our first game is against AmaTuks. We're only playing the PSL team in our second game, so we will be ready. I don't think the PSL teams will have any advantage over us. Football is the same everywhere, it's XI vs XI."

The recently retired [from international duty] former Namibian international also explained the slow start the team had to go through at the beginning of the season.

"As a team that had a brand-new squad, we were always going to need some time to gel.

"We're happy that we ended up playing as a team, we gelled. I can't falter any previous coach. It's all about the right time, I'm happy we are hitting the right notes at the right time.

"Having experienced players is very important in this league, they help in guiding the talented youngsters.

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