WE ARE BEHIND TECHNICAL BENCH – LEOPARD’S MXOLISI

MBABANE – Royal Leopard have thrown their weight behind the technical bench headed by Sifiso ‘Nuro’ Ntibane, despite losing four in five cup finals to Mbabane Swallows.

The latest defeat was last Saturday at Somhlolo National Stadium, which the Beautiful Birds conquered 1-0 courtesy of a wondrous strike by veteran winger Wonder ‘Samba Jive’ Nhleko. The police side MC Chairman and PLS Governor Mxolisi ‘Master’ Dlamini said it would be wrong to judge the team’s performance based on losing to Mbabane Swallows alone. “We have beaten a number of teams before reaching the finals, and it is, therefore, absurd to be then considered to be in trouble after losing to Swallows alone. You cannot benchmark our success and failure only on one team, when we have beaten quite a number of clubs in the league,” Dlamini said.

He said the technical bench had done well, and even on Saturday, their game plan was hampered by the injuries to key players, which resulted in forced substitutions. “The line-up was never changed; the issue is that those responsible with typing it did not make changes from previous games, and when the technical bench decides on the day, there has to be changes.”
He said they had properly planned for the game, and said it was only the forced substitution that affected their game plan.

“But there is no use crying over spilt milk as we have another opportunity this week to rectify the mistakes. We congratulate Swallows for having come to the game more prepared than us,” he said.
He said they would come prepared for this Sunday’s MTN League clash against the capital city giants, and declared that they would not allow themselves to lose again. Meanwhile, Dlamini cleared the air regarding the team’s failure to come for the runners-up medals’ presentation after Saturday’s final. He said they were not informed by the PLS or either the sponsor to wait for the awards.

“Even the officials on the day blocked Swallows players from leaving the field, and we were not told. I even reported to FA President and PLS Chairman that we were not informed about the medals and requested to collect them on behalf of the players who were already in the dressing room,” he said.

He said even for the individual awards, they had to call their players upon hearing their names being called through the stadium loudspeaker.
“We have apologised to the minister of Sports about the issue, and explained the misunderstanding that might have occurred,” he said.

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