Wayne Sandilands

Wayne Sandilands of Orlando Pirates during the Absa Premiership 2019/20 match between Orlando Pirates and Maritzburg United at the Orlando Stadium, Soweto on the 05 November 2019 ©Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix

Wayne Sandilands confident of Orlando Pirates title chances

Recent form has seen Orlando Pirates creep closer to the main title contenders.

Wayne Sandilands

Wayne Sandilands of Orlando Pirates during the Absa Premiership 2019/20 match between Orlando Pirates and Maritzburg United at the Orlando Stadium, Soweto on the 05 November 2019 ©Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix

Wayne Sandilands believes Orlando Pirates still have a steep mountain to scale, but the league title is not completely out of their grasp.

The Buccaneers have discovered some consistency around the halfway mark of the season, and remain unbeaten in their last seven matches.

Orlando Pirates not giving up on league title

However, 12 points still separate them with bitter foes, Kaizer Chiefs, who currently summit the league standings.

The veteran goalkeeper believes an unlikely title coup is not completely impossible.

“Stranger things have happened in football, there’s always a possibility. For us, we’ve just got to make sure we’re doing what we can on our front and win our games,” Sandilands told reporters.

“We’ll see what happens, but judging on the current situation it looks like a big mountain to climb and teams on top are performing as well, not showing real signs of tapering off.

“But I think our focus has to be on our performances and trying to get the best we can out of our own individual and team performances, and take it from there.

“So, our attention is solely on what we can do, try and get the ship back sailing in the right direction.”

Wayne Sandilands

Maintaining the gap

Pirates remain at home for their next fixture, as they seek another vital three points against AmaZulu, who held them to a goalless draw in the reverse fixture.

However, the two sides have seen contrasting fortunes since then, with the Soweto Giants steadily climbing up the standings, while AmaZulu find themselves rooted at the bottom of the table.

The fixture comes after Pirates secured maximum points in fine style in their last outing, racing to three first-half goals before conceding late for a 3-1 win over Highlands Park.

Coach Josef Zinnbauer hopes to see his side do better in protecting their lead in the coming weeks.

“We’ll continue to work (at not conceding) and we have a longer week,” the German said.

“The players need a little break and they’ll come back and I hope we’ll get it right because we need more points.

“It’s not enough what we’ve done in the five games‚ we need more. We have a lot of games and we need all the players.”

Josef Zinnbauer

Pirates have away fixtures against Chippa United and Black Leopards before hosting Chiefs for another installment of the Soweto Derby.

Kick-off against AmaZulu is at 18:00 (SAST).