Milford FC chairman and head coach Dr Xanti Pupuma earlier in the week spoke about the importance of grinding results to escape relegation from the Motsepe Foundation Championship.
Speaking to Sunday World following his club’s famous victory over Kaizer Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup, Pupuma expressed the urgent need to win home fixtures.
On Friday, however, that wish suffered a major blow when Milford were clobbered 3-1 at home by Hungry Lions.
The loss means Milford go down to position 13 in the 16-team league. With measly 20 points in the bag, just one point above the relegation zone, Milford will have to fight tooth and nail in its last 20 matches to stay up.
Pupuma said his young side had a responsibility to help save the status of the club by starting to win games on the road.
“My assessment is that most of our players are from the ABC Motsepe League (third-tier). I want them to get used to travelling long distances for away games and then play games the next day; our away record is quite bad,” Pupuma told Sunday World.
“I think we only won one game away, against Casric [Stars]; the rest we lost or drew. We haven’t lost a game at home since I took over, so if we can continue not losing home games, I think we can be safe from relegation.”
Pupuma, a gynaecologist, took over the reins as head coach after parting ways with the entire technical team led by Asanda Mvalo in September.
The Stallions have been pitted against a tricky Stellenbosch FC side in the Nedbank Cup last-16’, a fixture that Pupuma says will be yet another difficult task against a premiership side.
“The only positive thing from the draw is that it is our home game,” Pupuma added.
“Otherwise, Stellenbosch is going to be a very difficult team to play but I will sit down with my team to figure out how we are going to deal with them.”
Meanwhile, Milford travel to JDR Stars at Soshanguve’s Giant Stadium for their next league match on Saturday.
