Simo Dladla stresses promotion importance amid Nedbank Cup run

The Motsepe Foundation Championship log leaders caused an upset on Friday by eliminating TS Galaxy from the tournament, and will discover their opponents for the quarter-finals tonight.

Instead of viewing the progress as a possible distraction, Dladla welcomes one more match in their schedule as they build towards promotion.

"This gives us more games, of course, and we have a big squad – we have signed about seven players in January, and these players need to be integrated into the team," said Dladla.

"It is not easy to grasp the game model that we have created for Durban City, so every player needs time to adapt to the way we need them to do things.

"We appreciate this [advancing in the Nedbank Cup] because it gives us more games to integrate players and, of course, one eye is on the league because that's where our bread and butter."

The former Richards Bay FC coach adds that a fairytale cup run would be an added bonus, but should not come at the expense of losing ground in the MFC title race. 

"It is unfortunate that we can't coach players to go and lose a match, but to be honest with you, at some point we need to be focussing on your journey," he added.

"Look, I come from a background where we had 19 games unbeaten [and] we were number one for most parts of the season when I was at Richards Bay.

"We went to the [cup] quarter-finals and beat Kaizer Chiefs, there was a lot of excitement and then we lost the plot in the last five games, so we don't want the same thing to happen this time around.

"Of course I will consult with the technical team and management, and of course we will use these games to give game values and more minutes to the players that are not playing regularly

"Because there's going to come a time when there are suspensions, injuries, and fatigue."

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