Young Hotspurs coach (26) cracks whip
Koketso Kgoboge | Wednesday December 6, 2017 16:00
It appears his no-nonsense approach is reaping immediate fruits as his outfit is slowly moving out of the relegation zone after a poor start to the season.
Before his arrival at the club five weeks ago, Amahot were winless in four games with a single draw and three losses. They had conceded 11 goals, scored two and were rooted at the foot of the Debswana First Division North table.
Club secretary Kebonye Tau said by far they are impressed with the approach of their coach. He said the coach has decided to leave out a group of indisciplined players who have been a headache since the club was relegated. He said they are currently running with no budget and a group of the experienced players, which oversaw the relegation of the team, has been a menace since they are owed.
“We appreciate we owe the players, but they have been holding us at ransom. They sabotage our efforts and the coach has advised we leave them out and play with only players that are committed and since then, we are getting desirable results.”
“We have given all the 10 players in question their books and we are working with 13 players until the window opens and we will beef up. We have trust in our coach and we know he can change our fortunes.”
Pepe was Amahot’s assistant coach when the club climbed to the Premiership a season ago. He left the club to do his coaching B-licence qualification in Zambia. The Mahalapye-born coached a number of clubs in the Division One league, amongst them Tlokweng United, Surprise FC, Eleven Men and Sweet Eleven.
Pepe said despite the challenges at Amahot, he is impressed with the response of his lean squad. He said the first thing he looked at the team, was to improve the leaky defence. In his five games in charge; he has won three, lost twice, conceded two goals and achieved three clean sheets.
“Our focus since I arrived here was to improve the defence and results speak for themselves. My players are committed although we are not spoilt for choice due to our little numbers, but atleast we have rooted out the trouble and we are working as a unit.”
“We have improved our position and we hope to continue. Our problem now is consistency in the results, but that is caused by lack of fire power upfront and we can resolve that in the transfer window. I believe the second round we will return a much-improved side and we will achieve our mission of keeping the team in the First Division.”
Over the weekend, Amahot whipped Real Movers 2-0 while log leaders BR Highlanders continued their resurgence with a 2-0 win against GNT. Chasers Motlakase edged Nico United 1-0, Francistown City Greens held Sua Flamingoes to a 1-1 draw, Maphatshwa held Green Lovers to a 2-2 and Calendar Stars shocked Morupule Wanderers 1-0 in Pilikwe.