Anyone who knows Vasco da Gama’s head coach, Andrew Pequeno (pictured), well enough can vouch he’s a straight shooter and does not hide behind excuses.
With that being said, many will probably agree with him that their current woes in the stream A of the ABC Motsepe League campaign, can be attributed to their historical run in the Nedbank Cup where they missed out on a quarterfinal berth after being beaten 1-0 by fellow Second Division side Jacksa Spears in the Round of 16 clash early in February.
Well, that definitely came at a price as the Parow-based side is a mere shadow on themselves in the league and cannot find their mojo – much to the frustration of Pequeno.
“Honestly speaking, we have struggled for rhythm and goals since our Nedbank Cup campaign and we need to try and get ourselves back to being the Vasco of last season,” Pequeno explained to No Bones with Jones. “We have had a stop start league campaign with Nedbank Cup interruptions and a string of injuries and now we have a focused squad that are ready for the challenges ahead until the end of the season.” he added.
Vasco is currently languishing in the ninth position, two points of the relegation zone with nine games to play and according to Pequeno, all is not lost.
“We seriously need to start picking up points to move away from the relegation zone and climb up the log,” Pequeno further stated. “We are looking at trying to end the season as high as we can and see how it all transpires.
“We are also fully aware that we still have to play the current top three sides but mentally we are in a position to prove that our quality and pride is definitely still there. Our previous two games have shown me that the passion and fight is still there and that we just need some things to go our way as well, but you have to make your own luck in this game as they say,” Pequeno pointed out.
Vasco welcomes fellow relegation-threatened Zizwe United (Ikapa Sporting) to their Parow Park home ground (19:30) on Wednesday (15 April) which is also dubbed a “six-pointer” in the bigger scheme of things.
“This game is massive and a must win for us for more reasons than one but it won’t be easy hey,” Pequeno concluded.
