Stellies’ maiden cup final dedicated to Oshwin Andries and Clive Barker

The side from the Winelands beat Richards Bay 3-0 to book a place in the final of the Carling Knockout Cup at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in two weeks.

Barker reflected on an emotional year.

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"Right from the beginning of the year we lost one of our soldiers in Oshwin Andries, I lost my uncle Clive. So, for me I dedicate going into the final to both Oshwin and Clive. Hopefully I can come back, I grew up in Durban as a youngster. So, hopefully I can come back in two weeks’ time and do them proud and do our club proud and go all the way and win the final. So, getting into the final is one thing. Now the next objective is to win the final," Barker said.

On one of the games, he will probably never forget, Barker admitted Stellies started slow until they regrouped in the second half to breach the Richards Bay defense three times – goals coming from Devin Titus, Anicet Oura and Antonio Van Wyk.

"A tough game, you know, we've been travelling quite a bit and obviously coming late to the game, getting caught in traffic and stuck and only got here after, the car check, it was a bit of a rush and I felt that in the first half we were not totally at our best. A little bit of nervousness, cagey affair. We've already been in two semifinals and didn’t get into a final. So, I thought we just looked quite nervous in the first half," Barker explained.

Stellies have suffered the disappointment of reaching the two semifinals in less than a year, but not going all the way in both the Nedbank Cup and MTN8.

Barker believes that is where his young side gained experience.

"To have three semifinals and not make a final would be devastating but I do think we learnt from our lessons. We learnt from our previous semifinals, you know losing on penalty and losing on away goal.

“You know a player like Jayden Adams, he's only 22 but it was his 100th appearance today. So, when you have young players in your club that are already getting those amount of caps and then been in two semifinals, I think that sort of experiences that we had helped us this afternoon."