Steve Barker: Stellenbosch must return with a strong mentality

Stellies came into this campaign on the back of a strong Premier Soccer League season that saw them end in third place on the league standings and end as MTN8 runners-up.

They have started the new league with one win, one draw and three losses to sit in 13th place with just four points.

They did, however, manage to make it to the MTN8 final for the second season in a row with a 3-2 quarter-final win over AmaZulu and 3-1 semi-final aggregate victory over Sekhukhune United - and will now face last season's MTN8 champions Orlando Pirates.

But their last meeting with the Buccaneers in a league game in August, ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat, leaving Barker to reflect on a tough start.

He said in the Citizen: "When the fixture list came out we could see that it's not an easy start. Sundowns are a really good team, so are Pirates, Chiefs have settled, they made some good acquisitions to their squad, so we always knew it would be a difficult start.

"But we tried to make it feel like even though it was difficult, it's also exciting because if you come out of the five games with seven or eight points, it allows you hopefully the opportunity in the next five matches to get momentum, to go on unbeaten runs and back-to-back wins.

"But it turned out not to be with three 1-0 losses. It's a tough start, we need to reflect, there is a lot of learnings to be done. Too often it's been a bit of a pattern against all three teams where they started better than us and got a goal they probably deserve because of their dominance."

Barker added: "When we come back, we just have to get a better mentality and a mindset to start games a lot more aggressive and on the front foot, like we did against Sekhukhune at home, which set us up with a 2-0 win to take us to the final.

"A lot of lessons to be learnt but after the FIFA break we would have settled and incorporated all our new signings. Then it will be our opportunity to kickstart our league campaign."