Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has revealed his excitement ahead of the club’s opening match of the 2023 Carling Knockout competition.

Stellenbosch will take on Chippa United at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Saturday in the Round of 16 of the inaugural Carling Knockout tournament.

Preview: Stellenbosch FC v Chippa United (Carling Knockout Round of 16)

“We’re very excited and the innovative ideas that Carling have brought to the competition make it even more exciting,” Barker said.

“As a team, as the players and coaches, we always want to be challenging for silverware and this affords us a great opportunity to do that.  We’ve come close to making finals in our last two cup competitions so we are aiming to now go one step further.”

The aforementioned innovations include lucrative incentives for players and clubs, including a R100 000 Man of the Match award, which Barker believes can only be achieved through a strong collective performance.

“I think the incentives will be an added motivation, the Man of the Match gets quite a big sum of money so I’m sure that will spur the players on. Ultimately, though, it’s all about the team and to get a Man of the Match award, the team has to be performing well and winning.

“That increases the chance of that happening for the players individually, so we first have to put in a big performance collectively, and we’re all looking forward to an exciting challenge ahead.”

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Barker also addressed comments made by his counterpart, Morgan Mammila, in the build-up to Saturday’s match, in which it was suggested that the team from the Cape Winelands had been struggling this season.

“The opposition coach has eluded to the fact that we are having a difficult season but at the end of the day, we are a club and I am a coach who does his talking on the pitch, and come Saturday, we have a big opportunity to do that away from home against Chippa.

“We’ve done well in the cup competitions and we will bounce back in the league, we’re already coming in off a good performance [in the 3-0 DStv Premiership win over TS Galaxy], but ultimately it will be determined on the day which team comes out on top.”

Looking back at that performance against the Rockets, Barker revealed that he is hoping to see even more improvement from his side and that the recent international break was used as an opprtunity to work towards achieving that outcome.

“It was a really polished performance against TS Galaxy last time around, and then we had the break, but we always look at these breaks and use them positively,” he concluded.

Additional fixture information: Stellenbosch FC v Chippa United

“It allowed some players time to recover from a few small niggles, and for us to continue working and improving. Even with that positive result, there are still areas to improve on so it has been good for us.”