You've won nothing yet, Barker warns Stellies

Stellenbosch mentor Steve Barker has cautioned his troops against thinking that they’re now world-beaters amid their blistering league form ahead of tackling Richards Bay in the Carling Knockout semifinals at King Zwelithini Stadium on Saturday (3pm).

Stellies head into this cup clash on the back of a brilliant league run, where they garnered four victories and a draw in their last five games with an impressive nine goals scored, while conceding just once.

“We’ve got a big task on Saturday. The message to the players is ‘don’t become complacent, don’t ever think we’ve arrived’. I think we are many, many miles behind a team like Sundowns, so that’s the target... we want to close that gap week in week out,” Barker said.

Tomorrow will be Stellies’ third semifinal in the current calendar year. In May, Barker’s men reached the Nedbank Cup semifinals only to lose on penalties to Sekhukhune United. In September, they reached the MTN8 last four but lost on away goals rule to Orlando Pirates. They lost the first leg 2-1 at home, before winning 1-0 away.

Barker wants their previous two semifinals heartbreaks to motivate them as they don’t want to endure the same agony again. The Stellies mentor trusts his side has grown from their abortive semifinals, suggesting fatigue may take its toll on them, albeit embracing their congested fixture programme.

“It’s lessons learnt... we’ve come close in two semifinals and didn’t go to the final. That pain that we had and felt when we didn’t make the final, we’ve got to remind ourselves that it’s painful to get this close and not make it,” Barker said.

“I think we are more matured now as a team in terms of reaching semifinals and playing semifinals, so hopefully that maturity and the pain that we felt from not making finals will drive us forward. Obviously it won’t be easy for us... we’ve been travelling a lot but again, if you want to be successful you have to accept playing more matches. We need to embrace it.”