Staff Reporter.
@GalloImages.
Swallows FC and Kaizer Chiefs will meet in the 10th week of the 2021/2022 Premier League on Sunday the 28th of November at 3:30 pm at Volkswagen Dobsonville Stadium.
The Dube Birds are desperate for their fortunes to turn after a 1-0 loss at the hands of TS Galaxy last weekend brought their winless streak to 10 matches.
Swallows retained the defensive solidity that served them well last season (10 goals conceded from 11 games is respectable), but they have completely misfired in attack, scoring just twice all season and failing to find the net in their last four successive matches.
Swallows chairman David Mogashoa gave under-fire coach Brandon Truter his backing earlier this week, but the tactician’s time at the helm of the team will surely be at an end if he does not break their win drought very soon.
Chiefs, meanwhile, have shrugged off their early-season struggles and have been rising steadily up the log in recent weeks, but will need to keep up their consistency if they are to have hopes of challenging for the title.
They were in action in midweek and played to a 1-1 draw at home to AmaZulu, missing out on a hat-trick of wins in the process.
The result sees Stuart Baxter’s placed fifth on the log, with an eight-point deficit to leaders Mamelodi Sundowns (who have played a game less) – not an insurmountable gap, but one that Chiefs cannot allow to grow.
Baxter has leapt to the defence of Cole Alexander after the midfielder saw red against AmaZulu on Wednesday.
Alexander’s exit from the match proved to be the turning point as Bongi Ntuli equalised for Usuthu soon after, but Baxter refused to lay blame at the feet of his veteran midfielder.
“It’s difficult, isn’t it? Happy [Mashiane] got a red [in the 2021 CAF Champions League final] against Al Ahly and that changed the game,” he said.
“Red cards do change the game but you don’t want to take out the commitment from players, but you have to manage it.
“When I came here the first time around, Willard Katsande was arguably a hooligan on the football field but he changed, and he managed it, and we got him a role.
“Cole plays a little bit on the edge but he has energy and we like that about him, but we’ve got to manage it. But as for the game, we were losing control of the game even with 11 men. I didn’t like our performance.
“I think the hectic nature of the game drew that foul. I have no issue with the two yellow cards for Cole but I’m just looking at some of the other fouls or situations that the referee let go and then it becomes a little bit more questionable.
“But we have to work on our players and make sure we stay on that line of being competitive and not overstepping it and getting yellow cards.”
The forecast is that the match will end with 3 goals or more. As of now the combined matches of Swallows and Chiefs ended 16 times with 2 goals or less and 7 times with more than 2 goals.