Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler has set his sights on winning the Carling Knockout Cup ahead of their quarterfinal clash against Richards Bay at the King Zwelithini Stadium on Saturday (15:00). 

The Citizens have had a slow start to the 2024/25 season in the league but advanced to the quarterfinals of the league cup following a 3-0 win over KZN side Royal AM in the round of 16 of the competition. 

However, the city mentor says he would like to change the fortunes of the club by winning a trophy this campaign, as he sees the Carling Knockout as the perfect opportunity to bring back the glory days to the Cape outfit. 

Tinkler, who is on his second stint at the Cape Town-based side, has urged his troops to get over their disappointing 3-0 thrashing against defending league champions Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Stadium on Wednesday night. 

“Let’s not think about the past, let’s look at the future, we’ve lost the Sundowns game. Now the focus turns to this game against Richards Bay. Our target and objective at the beginning of the season was obviously to again try and finish in the top four,” he said. 

The 54-year-old tactician says he would like to bring the league cup back to the mother city for the first time since winning it with the club back in the 2016/17 season, as the team last won a trophy in the 2018/19 campaign. 

“We would like to try and bring a trophy back to Cape Town City it’s been a while now since we haven’t won a trophy, so that target was set right at the beginning of the season, so we find ourselves now in the quarterfinals,” said Tinkler. 

Despite being eager to bring silverware to the John Comitis-owned club, the former Orlando Pirates coach acknowledges that getting a favorable result against the Natal Rich boys won’t be an easy task. 

“This match is very important for us to achieve that objective, Richards Bay can be a difficult team, Truter is a good coach, but it’s difficult when you play against them, a very aggressive team and counter-attacking team,” he stated. 

“We have to be at our best, obviously I made a lot of changes in the game against Sundowns, just to show how serious we are taking this competition, so we are going all out there with guns blazing.”