Durban — Marumo Gallants booked their place in the group stage of the Caf Confederation Cup with a 1-0 victory over Elgeco Plus from Madagascar on Saturday.
Bahlabane Ba Ntwa, in their maiden campaign in Africa made light work of their opponents over two legs, securing a 4-1 aggregate victory.
Marumo Gallants stand-in coach in Caf competitions, Raymond Mdaka reflected negatively following his side's progression to the group stage of the Confederation Cup, blasting his players for taking their foot off the pedal in the second leg at home.
"We should have won 1-0 away and 3-1 at home, the performance today was not that good," Mdaka said
"Yes I admit we realised they couldn't give us any problems offensively, but for us to have a good game we needed to score more goals so today wasn't a good game for us."
The Limpopo-based club have been one of the lowest scoring teams in the Premiership this season, managing just six goals in their opening nine matches, the third lowest in the league.
Mdaka questioned his team’s lack of cutting edge and professionalism in their win over Elgeco.
"The boys were completely complacent because we saw it got into the players’ minds that they could not harm us, but scoring needs to become a habit for us and we need to continually work on it," he said.
Marumo Gallants have looked like a different outfit under the stewardship of Dan “Dance” Malesela, winning three games on the bounce in all competitions and playing the same football that saw them move off the bottom of the log and just miss out on a top-eight spot last season.
The experienced coach returned to Marumo Gallants at the first opportunity last month, following a brief stint at Royal AM.
His distinct philosophy and playing style has seen him turnaround the fortunes of teams in the past, and having previously done it with TS Galaxy, he will look to do the same now with Marumo Gallants, by enjoying a good run in Africa.
Marumo Gallants will now turn their attention to domestic duties as the formidable challenge of Mamelodi Sundowns awaits them in their next match.
Marumo Gallants are currently 15th on the log, but are just four points behind Golden Arrows in seventh position making their push for a top-eight finish a realistic target.
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