Steve Barker moves past SuperSport United defeat ahead of big week for Stellenbosch

Barker was unable to guide Stellies to a second successive win over Matsatsantsa in the DStv Premiership at the Danie Craven Stadium on Saturday night, going down 2-1 to his counterpart Gavin Hunt.

Stellies now have to dust themselves off ahead of welcoming Amakhosi in the league on Wednesday and then Pirates in the first leg of the MTN8 semifinal, two important fixtures in the club’s history.

"If you get the results in the first game, it just makes the rest of the week a little bit easier. Ultimately, two, three years back when we played a SuperSport team like this, it would have been far more difficult I think," Barker said.

"We would have been hoping to get something out of the game, whereas tonight I felt we were able to match them in every department. Which is a positive sign that one of the better teams in the league were able to go a week and a half back we beat them and now they beat us. 

So, I don't think we need into go to the next two games not believing that we can get two special results."

Barker is fast gaining a reputation for being able to build something special with Stellies, who finished in sixth place last season and reached the semifinal of the Nedbank Cup.

Two matches against the Soweto giants will be an indicator of how far they’ve come.

"A very big week, I was just telling the players that it's a privilege to have a week like this. It's something that we want. We wanna be in the semifinals of cups. We want to be playing a week like this, all the big teams worldwide they play three matches in a week and we have to deal with it and look forward to it. 

It's a privilege to be able to host two big clubs in South African football within three days. At Athlone, hopefully, the crowd will come out in numbers and we will be competitive. There's no reason why we can't believe we can get a positive result on Wednesday and then back that up with another positive result on the weekend."