Gunners headed for relegation battle again?

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Friday March 23, 2007 00:00

For long, Mapantsula have looked safe with no real possibility that they might have to dig into their legendary bag of survival tricks to avoid their usual last day relegation antics. However, things started going wrong for the Lobatse side after they were exposed and humiliated by the punch-bags, Township Rollers, 4-1 in a highly attended first round game. Since then, Gunners have been struggling to regain their poise. They have fared badly and in some matches they lost and drew after leading 2-0.

Currently, Gunners are sitting on the 12th spot with 22 points, seven points clear from the bottom-placed Prisons XI. If teams below Gunners like TASC, FC Satmos and TASC start picking points in the remaining 10 games, then Gunners could find themselves having to fight the dreaded axe again, come the end of the season. Since 1996, Gunners have been fighting relegation battles every season. In some years, they avoided the chop by a whisker. The Lobatse giants are now a far cry from the formidable side that clinched the league title on three consecutive seasons between 1992- 1994. To compound matters, the Gunners' management has been hit by continuous infighting and changing of coaches in acrimonious circumstances. 

Every season, the club engages a new coach. Reports say the current coach, Fewdays Musonda has been warned that his days at the club are numbered if he does not produce results. Like his assistants Innocent Morapedi who has already been sent packing, Musonda is coaching Gunners for the second time. One major failure at the club is to attract lucrative sponsorships. This means that there is little money to buy quality players. Currently, the only big name player at Gunners is international Tshepo 'Talk Talk' Motlhabankwe, who has indicated that he might leave.

In the past Gunners used to field top names in local football like of Joshua Mogotsi, ball juggler Naphtaly 'Scara' Kebalepile and Tummie Duiker. Despite the danger signals, Gunners' spokesman, Kitso Dlamini, said there is no need to press panic buttons because it is too early to talk about relegation. He said they are targeting a top eight finish at the end of the season. He concurred that the team has not been playing well since the second round kicked off but this can be taken care of. Dlamini said they have introduced morning training sessions because they have realised that the players lacked stamina. He said they have been plagued by injuries and this could have contributed to the poor performance.