Steve Barker on Mojela’s scoring form, MTN8 selection headache

The 28-year-old was signed from TS Galaxy at the start of the season and has already scored five goals in eight matches from all competitions.

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Barker spoke about Mojela’s form ahead of the MTN8 against Orlando Pirates on Saturday in Durban.

''Bradley has been really good for us. I mean he is getting on the scoresheet and he's scoring some really good goals. It's nice that he is scoring and he is playing with a lot of confidence. He is a handful for any team, a lot of energy, a lot of movement, a lot of pressing. And adding goals to that, it means he is a formidable player for us, so I am happy for him, but yah, well taken goal - hopefully his goal scoring can continue,'' said Barker.

Stellies were held to a 1-1 draw by Polokwane City on Sunday evening, but Barker dismissed suggestions his charges were distracted ahead of the trip to KZN.

''I wouldn't totally say so. I think our mentality is to just see the game before us and play the game and I felt we did. Obviously, different occasion, you know you go to a nice big stadium  with a full crowd, a final. I'm sure our levels of motivation will be very high to perform better than what we did this evening. 

But yah, it's uncomfortable to come here on a Sunday evening and play against Polokwane under these conditions, so I can't fault the commitment - I can't think that players had one eye on the next week, I think we tried to win the game. I think by trying to win the game and pushing numbers forward, we exposed ourselves at the back on transitions, so there were times were they looked quite dangerous on the transitions but we don't want to be coming here and play for a point, we want to win as many games as we can,'' added Barker.

Barker could have a selection headache when they face Pirates having rested key midfielder Jayden Adams and giving a full debut to Chumani Butsaka, who was signed from Cape Town Spurs two weeks ago.  

''It's his first start for us. He played a full 90 minutes, I thought he was really good on the evening, the goalkeeper had a big save from him, he could have had a goal. He had a lot of energy, a lot of winning and progressive passes, getting forward and getting into key players. 

I thought it was an accomplished performance by Chumani, so it is nice to have that option as well. Obviously there's a lot of other really good midfielders who are playing well people like Sihle, people like Jabaar and Jayden Adams, so the competition is tight in the midfield and it is good when people are given the opportunity to start and they put their hand up which Cumani did,'' he expressed.

On their form in the Betway Premiership after just one win from three matches, Barker insisted he wasn’t losing sleep over the slow start.