By Monwabisi Jimlongo
It’s been a flying start and an impressive season so far for Swallows FC something, which has left their chairman David Mogashoa smiling from ear to ear.
Mogashoa is happy with some of the decisions they took before the beginning of this campaign as everything is going according to what he planned before the start of the 2020/21 season. The Dube Birds boss and his colleagues in the Swallows hierarchy never entertained the idea of making wholesale changes to the team including appointing a new coach.
Swallows, who are second on the DStv Premiership table, have so far bagged 25 points after winning seven matches and drawing four. Actually, Swallows have the same number of points as log-leaders and unbeaten Mamelodi Sundowns, who have also recorded the same number of wins and draws.
‘‘We planned everything well because we didn’t want to disappoint our supporters. We made sure that 50 percent of the players, who won us the championship remained,’’ he said.
‘‘We are satisfied with what we have, we don’t want to change much, maybe we will look at strengthening the team at the end of the season. We have identified two strikers, but unfortunately they are still contracted to other clubs. We intend to sign them at the end of the season. One of the strikers still has two years left in his contract.’’
Retaining Brandon Truter as Swallows coach was the biggest and probably the most important decision Mogashoa took. Truter is the driving force behind the Birds’ flight after arriving at Swallows when they were languishing on 14th position on the GladAfrica Championship standings last season.
Mitchell’s Plain-born Truter performed wonders and ensured that Swallows got promoted to the Premier Division.
‘‘We had to keep Brandon as our coach because he did very well for us. He took Swallows to number one and won the league automatically last season. We have not lost a match since March last year and that says a lot about Brandon as a coach,’’ said Mogashoa.
‘‘We have a target of 45 points because we believe that that number of points will guarantee us a top-eight finish. Our objectives remain the same. We want to go back where we were in the past. We don’t want Swallows to go up and down. We want to be stable and become one of the most feared teams in South Africa.’’
Meanwhile, Mogashoa is happy that Swallows have been fortunate not to have positive cases of the coronavirus in the second wave.
‘‘We have been lucky in this regard. It’s all about discipline as none of our players has tested positive in this second wave including those from the MDC team. This is despite having had five cases in the first wave,’’ Mogashoa said.
The unbeaten Swallows are going to welcome Chippa United in DStv Premiership fixture at the Dobsonville Stadium on Wednesday (17h00).
