AmaTuks must avoid the PSL playoffs at all costs - Singnkhi Mpedi

By Chad Klate
19th March 2024

University of Pretoria midfielder Singnkhi Mpedi has stressed the need to avoid falling into the Premier Soccer League's promotion/relegation play-offs if they are to secure promotion.

It's been eight long seasons since AmaTuks suffered relegation from the premier division – via the play-offs, with the team having struggled to bounce back.

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They came agonisingly close in 2022, when they missed out on the first and automatic promotion place, in what was then known as the GladAfrica Championship, before later falling on the final day in the play-offs to Moroka Swallows.

Mpedi says the play-offs is not a road they want to navigate to reach the top flight this season.

"Ja, we want to avoid [the] play-offs at all costs because playing in the play-offs is very difficult because you're [fresh] from playing 30 games, including the Nedbank Cup," Mpedi told SABC Sport.

"So for players, the fatigue is kicking in and come play-offs time you are pushing the body over the limit somehow because it's used to playing up until a certain time, and now it has to adjust.

"So it's a long process with the play-offs, so we really want to avoid them at all costs."

Tuks – with an 11-match unbeaten run in the league at present – currently occupy second spot in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, one point behind leaders Magesi FC, with nine games remaining in the campaign.

Led by seasoned tactician Clinton Larsen, Magesi will certainly be no pushovers, but Mpedi believes the winner in their second-round encounter scheduled for 19 April could prove the decider in the title and promotion race.

"They also have a team that can compete and go all the way through, but we still have to play each other along the way, so if it goes that both teams have a good run then it will go down to who wins the match between them and us," added the 31-year-old.

"So I feel very strongly that we can go all the way and get automatic promotion."

The MFC is far from a two-horse race, however, with Orbit College – who only this season earned promotion from the third tier – just a further point behind University of Pretoria in third place.