Alex Bapela has set himself a target of seeing his team gain promotion to the Motsepe Foundation Championship at the end of the season.
Bapela is the head coach at ambitious Limpopo ABC Motsepe League side Ditlou FC.
He began the 2022/23 season with a 2-1-win over newcomers Tzaneen United at the Groblersdal Stadium on Friday afternoon.
Barnes, as he is affectionately known in football circles, began his tenure as coach of the club last season after parting ways with Sekhukhune United.
Speaking to FARPost, the 52-year-old insists their promotion to the first division is long overdue.
“This season, there is nothing else. We don’t just want to be number one, but we want to gain promotion. We have to see ourselves in the playoffs and make sure that we take this team to the next level, we have been here for a long time,” he said.
Lots of quality at his disposal
“The players that I have are good enough, but you know, in football, you can never have enough. We still want players who have similar quality out there who can also make a difference here.”
On starting the season on a high
“The plan for the match was to score as many goals as we can in the first half. We realized that these guys (Tzaneen United) are new, that’s why we have to destabilise them by going to them in the first half and scoring goals.
“We knew that if we scored in the first half, they wouldn’t come back. Unfortunately, we conceded the goal in the last minute of the first half, that’s where we made a mistake, but anyway, the first-half plan was well executed. We should have buried the chances,” added the Mamelodi Sundowns legend.
