Moment of truth for champions Bantu

For the first time in James Madidilane's reign as coach,
Bantu are under pressure...

James Madidilane has been a revelation ever since he arrived in Lesotho in July 2016 to take charge of Bantu.

The former South African international has basically done no wrong at A Matšo Matebele and has masterminded the most successful run in the club’s 91-year history.

Although when Madidilane arrived Bantu had already assembled a talented squad and won their first-ever league title in 2014, he still inherited a fractured squad that had just finished the 2015/16 season in seventh place and appeared stale.

Rivals Lioli had just won their second successive title and third in four years. In fact, Tse Nala ended 2016 in possession of all three of Lesotho’s major trophies – the league, LNIG Top 8 and Independence Cup.

Madidilane, however, changed everything.

He immediately invigorated Bantu and the Mafeteng giants went on to win the league title in Madidilane’s first season in charge.

Last season A Matšo Matebele then went one better and conquered the Independence Cup in addition to defending their league crown.

Bantu’s start to this Econet Premier League season has been far from perfect, however. Madidilane’s side surprisingly drew 1-1 with Sefotha-fotha in their season opener two weeks ago and then lost 1-0 to rivals Lioli last Sunday.

For the first time in Madidilane’s reign Bantu are facing adversity.

On Saturday they face LDF at Setsoto, a difficult opponent with stated ambitions of winning the league for the first time since 2004.

What if LDF get the win over Bantu?

If that happens then Bantu’s poor start may become a fully-fledged crisis.

That is the challenge, and pressure, facing Madidilane and Bantu heading into Saturday’s game against LDF.

Like everyone else connected to Bantu, Madidilane was very disappointed with Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Lioli in front of a packed Setsoto Stadium. It was a game Bantu could have won if they had been more efficient in the final third, a flaw which also hampered them against Sefotha-fotha.

Instead, Bantu yielded the early momentum and bragging rights to Lioli, something that does not go down well in Mafeteng. A Matšo Matebele are 11th in the Econet Premier League after two games.

Last Sunday's 1-0 loss to Lioli wasn't a good day out for the Mafeteng faithful...

“We only lost to Lioli because of a lack of concentration seven minutes before the end of the game,” Madidilane said of the loss to Lioli this week.

“It was more of a loss of concentration from my defence and a lack of communication between the defence and the goalkeeper. Lioli played well but I blame my players because they switched off at a critical time of the match, we were not supposed to concede from that situation.”

“Lioli were not a threat to us, we wanted to win the game and not get a draw. Unfortunately it did not work for us, so we have to go back to the drawing board and prepare for the next match.”

Madidilane said the loss to Lioli should be wakeup call for Bantu.

“The loss to Bantu is a message to the players and everybody in the team,” he said.

“I think that it is the first time this happens to Bantu, that we start the season like this, but it is only two matches. We only lost two matches and I think it is still early, but it is not good for a big team to start like this.”

One area of concern from Bantu’s opening two games has been their normally potent offence.

Last season A Matšo Matebele used an attack-by-committee approach with Hlompho Kalake, Litšepe Marabe, Lazola Tjokotjokwana, Tsebang Lebata and even Mokone Marabe taking turns to score match-winning goals across their title-winning campaign.

This season Bantu haven’t started the same way with their solitary goal coming from new signing Neo Mokhachane.

Madidilane, however, said Bantu can still bounce back, starting with Saturday’s headline game against LDF.

“It is unfortunate we cannot change the results we have had but I still believe that we can still bounce back, we have 24 matches to go,” Madidilane said.

“We have to give credit to these two teams, Sefotha-fotha and Lioli who secured its win in the last minutes. But this says we should go back as Bantu and check where have gone wrong,” he added.

“I believe in my players that we can still bounce back, but the attitude has to change as well as the application in the field of play.”