Ernst Middendorp Insight  

The week has begun at a slow pace for us, as we next have a PSL fixture on the 12th October.
As the famous saying goes the lull before the storm has begun. I gave the players the day off yesterday and some of them used the time to catch up on sleep -others had easy club commitments like taking on Orlando Pirates players on the new play station game.

It was a well deserved rest and we began training in earnest on Tuesday with training in the morning and the afternoon, as we had planned to have a friendly game this afternoon - but our opponents were unable to make the game.

From next Wednesday the 12th of October we play five games to the end of the month with our final game of the month against Pirates on the 29th of October.

We will be playing some of our up coming home matches at the Olympia Park Stadium in Rustenburg - personally I would have preferred using the FNB Stadium.

Many of the players prefer playing at the Olympia Stadium for some reason or the other so I will go with their instincts.

I will be going out to Rustenburg on Friday to see the stadium and inspect the pitch and also decide our game plan after I have looked at the set up there.

After the Santos game we will decide whether we want to continue playing other matches in Rustenburg or return to the FNB Stadium.

Our injuries are diminishing - we still do have some bordering on very serious, Rowen Fernandez is making good progress -he should be back at training next week. He has been training under supervision at the gym.

Serge Djiehoua has gone for another scan and we should know late on Tuesday the full extent of his injury and the time that he will be out of the game.

Cyril Nzama is at full fitness and will be part of the Macufe Cup game against Celtic on the weekend. Fabian McCarthy has recovered from his ankle injury he picked up against Celtic.

He resumed full training on Tuesday and is ready for selection.

Scara Ngobese returned on Tuesday morning from Egypt after travelling there for a fashion shoot.

Being with models and fashion icons can keep a man floating for many days - let’s hope Scara will be with us - not in the clouds - when he resumes training on Tuesday afternoon!

We have a game against Celtic on the weekend, which I feel is the perfect opportunity to blood some of the fringe players and give them a run so as to see their preparedness for league matches.

Players such as Gerald Sibeko, Gert Schalkwyk and David Matoto could be given a run in this match which although not an official cup game does hold that competitive edge with the added cup final flavour.

Keep in my Love, Peace and Chiefs

October 4, 2005

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