Marumo Gallants will resume 'operation survival' under a restructured technical team faced with what could be a taxing finish to the season.
Gallants impressively began their last 10 fixtures in the last third of the season with a vital win over Sekhukhune United at their adopted home – the Royal Bafokeng Stadium near Rustenburg.
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It is a Limpopo derby being played in the North-West with one of the teams actually based in Johannesburg (Sekhukhune).
Less of the geography and more of football is that priority is maintaining their DStv Premiership status for Marumo and that is no secret.
They need points and need them urgent regardless of who sits on the bench after announcing a bizarre technical shake up this week.
Dan Malesela has been pushed out and placed on special leave – which equates to be sacked in domestic football and in comes Dylan Kerr in an advisory position as a consultant – which is the equivalent of head coach.
Kerr is essentially waiting for his work permit to sit on the bench having been running the show at training this week with interim head coach Raymond Mdaka providing support.
Whatever the arrangement on the bench, two wins from 20 league matches before Saturday's important win is a recipe for disaster.
That Marumo have been awful since returning from the FIFA World Cup is an understatement as they have collected just two points out of a possible 24.
How Malesela sees such a return as not being failure is only understood by him considering that he had a mini pre-season during the World Cup.
Worse for Marumo right now is that while they are three points into the mud, they have also played two more games more than those just above Swallows FC and Maritzburg United.
After Sekhukhune United, Marumo will play TS Galaxy, Cape Town City, Royal AM, Kaizer Chiefs, Chippa United, SuperSport United, Maritzburg United, Mamelodi Sundowns, and Swallows FC.
They play Magesi in the Nedbank Cup.
Then, in between all their domestic commitments, they must play in the CAF Confederation Cup group stages after being thrown in Group A with USM Alger (Algeria), Al Akhdar (Libya), and St. Eloi Lupopo (DR Congo).
It is a colossal challenge without any doubt that will need for Marumo to be gallant.
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