Richards Bay Coach Is A Relieved Man
Richards Bay co-coach Ronnie Gabriel expressed his relief after his team finally secured their first victory and maximum points of the season.
Gabriel felt his side didn’t deserve to lose their previous matches, a concern that grew after they suffered three consecutive league defeats.
However, at Princess Magogo Stadium on Tuesday, the Natal Rich Boys finally got on the scoreboard. A goal from Gabadinho Mhango just before halftime secured the win, bringing a welcome sense of relief to the coaching staff and management.
“We had to look back at our previous results. We felt that against Marumo Gallants and Golden Arrows, we played well,” said Gabriel. “We dominated the stats in those games and created numerous scoring chances, but ended up on the losing end.”
In addition to those losses, Gabriel’s team had also lost to Kaizer Chiefs the previous week. “Coming to the Chippa game, there was pressure,” he continued. “We had to get on the scoreboard and start accumulating points. The boys did just that; they came out and delivered. We were confident coming into the game that our performances in the previous games were good enough to earn us points.”
Gabriel described the match against Chippa United as a “war of attrition” rather than a tactical battle, with both teams desperate to move away from the bottom of the league table.
“It became a bit scrappy at times, but be that as it may, when you are at the bottom of the log, we will take any points, anyhow,” he said.
Gabriel was aware that a fourth consecutive league defeat would have created a mental block for his young players. He acknowledged that in such situations, coaches must become more than just strategists.
“It is a challenge to deal with a group of youngsters,” he explained.
“Once they start losing games on the trot, they start to doubt whether they are capable of playing at this level. The doubts that creep into their minds—it’s up to us as coaches to give them that confidence and belief, to show them the statistics that we played well in the previous games.”
To build morale, the coaches showed the players video footage from their past matches. “The football gods were not with us,” Gabriel said.
“Against Arrows, we dominated them, but we ended up on the losing side, and we had to show them the visuals of those games. They started to buy into it, they started to believe in it, and you saw it in the way they came out; it was a confident group out there.”
The win over Chippa has moved Richards Bay to 13th in the Betway Premiership with three points from four matches.
The KwaZulu-Natal club will now visit Siwelele FC at Dr. Molemela Stadium on Friday at 19:30.
