Coach Steve Barker addressed the media at the PSL Headquarters in Parktown on Thursday ahead of the club’s MTN8 semi-final encounter against Sekhukhune United.

Stellenbosch FC have traveled to Polokwane to take on Sekhukhune United in the second leg of the MTN8 semi-finals, holding a two-goal advantage from the first leg tie that took place last weekend.

Recap | Stellies draw first blood in MTN8 semi-finals against Sekhukhune Utd

Here are some of the key takeaways from coach Steve Barker’s pre-match press conference:

Approaching Saturday’s semi-final second leg encounter

“We’re looking forward to another exciting challenge,” Barker said. “Having made last year’s final, we’d obviously love to be back in another final.

“We started the first leg well and achieved our objective of scoring and not conceding an away goal. I thought we were really good at home against Sekhukhune United, but we are aware that the game is only halfway done.

“Sekhukhune are a very good team – they are showing that in their league form – and they will have the same ambitions of reaching a final. We understand that the challenge will be big for us, but at the same time, we have to reward ourselves for the work we did in the first leg.

“It’s up to us, and it’s our responsibility to go there for the second leg and ensure that we get ourselves into the final.

“We’ve learned over the season or so in these home-and-away times that you sometimes have to be braver away from home than at home because of the away goal. We can’t go there and expect that we can just defend our two-nil lead. That would be unwise. We’ve got to be positive and take the game to Sekhukhune.

“We’ve got to try to get that important away goal, which I believe would put us in a really, really strong position.”

Avoiding complacency with a two-goal buffer in the bank

“In our home-and-away ties in the MTN8 against Mamelodi Sundowns, and then six such games in the CAF Confederation Cup last season, we had a good record. The only one we didn’t come through was against Simba [in the Confed Cup], and we learned a lot from that occasion.

Read | SFC Ladies Reserves crowned Women’s Regional League champs

“What we do know is that you can never think a job is done until it is done. We can’t become complacent and believe that a two-nil lead means anything. We’ve got to start the game on a clean slate and approach it with a positive mindset, and take the game to Sekhukhune.

“The first 20-30 minutes will be crucial as I’m sure they will be coming out looking to get an early goal and put themselves in a position to take it to penalties or even win it.

“We can’t go there and expect that they won’t cause us problems. They are a good team. [Keletso] Makgalwa is a good player, [Bradley] Grobler is a good finisher, [Vusumzi] Mncube is a good finisher, and they’ve got good experience at the back.

“At the same time, we’ve learned and grown as a team in these types of competitions. We’ve learned how to come through difficult situations.”

Facing the same opponents twice in the space of  a week

“Through past experience, playing the same team twice presents opportunities because you know them well enough. We’ve done our analysis before the first leg, and they got a good result mid-week, so we know what to expect.

“We know what type of players they have, and in terms of preparation, it does make preparation a bit easier. The key part is dealing with the key moments in the game. I don’t see it as making it easier or more difficult, but rather as two teams who know each other well.

“I believe it will go down to the finer details that will be important in the match.”

The possibility of a repeat of last year’s final against Orlando Pirates

“I don’t think it’s necessarily a revenge-type mentality that we need. The important thing is for us to focus on Saturday’s match and not have any thoughts of the final until we have progressed.

Read | Stellies sign Mthetheleli Mthiyane from Milford FC

We obviously don’t know who the opposition would be should we make the final, so we don’t have thoughts of any retribution or revenge.

“If you look at the steps of progression, we lost in the quarter-final three years back, then we lost in the semi-finals, and then in the final, so hopefully this time we can go one step further and lift the trophy.

“Importantly though, we still have matches in between with Saturday’s game and league matches, so it would be unwise for us to be thinking too far ahead other than to finish the job that we started well.”