CONTINENTAL FOOTBALL
Rowan Callaghan|Published
Newly appointed Durban City FC head coach Eric Tinkler insists his side will need to work "extremely hard" if they are to turn their dream of reaching the CAF Confederation Cup group stages into reality, as the Citizens turn their focus to this weekend's crucial second preliminary round home clash against Mauritian outfit AS Port-Louis 2000.
Having safely navigated past Burundi's Rukinzo FC 3-1 on aggregate in the first preliminary round under Khalil Ben Youssef, Durban City now find themselves just two matches away from securing a lucrative spot in the group phase of their maiden continental campaign.
Tinkler’s first official match at the helm saw the Nedbank Cup champions fall to a 2-1 home defeat against KwaZulu-Natal rivals AmaZulu in a league match on Tuesday night. Reflecting on his opening match on the bench after taking charge just over a week ago, Tinkler highlighted both the individual lapses that cost them early on and the spirited second-half fightback.
"I think obviously first off we got punished on two counter-attacks. They're a very, very dangerous team on the counter," Tinkler explained. "Made a couple of changes at half-time and I thought the response was very, very good in the second half. We got ourselves a goal and then that brought us back into the game and possibly towards the end there may be an even equaliser. So happy with how the players responded."
With a handful of friendly matches behind him before stepping onto the touchline at Chatsworth Stadium, Tinkler views the defeat as an essential reality check that provided clear diagnostic data on where the team stands.
"I haven't been here too long, just over 10 days now. A couple of friendlies that we played to get to know the players a little bit, try and implement some of my fundamentals and my principles... And training or friendly matches are not the same thing as a real match," he said afterwards.
"Tonight was the first time that I can actually observe the team in certain areas where we still need to improve on both offensively and defensively. There's still quite a bit of work that we need to do on the intensity and the energy at which we need to play at."
Despite a demanding domestic calendar that includes an upcoming clash against Mamelodi Sundowns, Tinkler emphasized that continental football was a key factor in his decision to join Durban City, making the coming two-legged affair against AS Port-Louis 2000 the centerpiece of their season.
"Just being involved in CAF competitions is what every club wants to be involved in, and what every coach wants to be involved in. I think for us as a club now, we have an opportunity to possibly get ourselves into the group stage, so the game on the weekend is a very important match. First the home game, and then the away game," he said.
"It's very crucial because it's one of the reasons why I came here – because we're in the CAF Confed. So we want to remain in the CAF Confed. You can never take anything for granted in life. We're going to have to work extremely hard against them in order to make sure that we get ourselves to that group stage."
Kickoff at Moses Mabhida Stadium is at 3pm on Sunday.