Steve Barker was delighted with his side’s commitment and resilience after recording a famous penalty shootout victory over Kaizer Chiefs in the Carling Knockout Round of 16.

Ten-man Stellenbosch FC advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2025 Carling Knockout after recording a 0-0 (5-4) penalty shootout win over Kaizer Chiefs at DHL Stadium on Sunday. Here’s what coach Steve Barker had to say after the match.

On a hard-fought victory over Kaizer Chiefs

Obviously, when a game goes all the way to 120 minutes and penalties, it becomes a big game of attrition.

Neither team created massively big chances to score, and maybe just that one goal would have been the one that won it for either team. It ended up being a case of just staying in the game for as long as possible, not conceding, and hopefully creating a moment at some stage, whether it’s 90 minutes or extra time, to seal the game.

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I think from our side, we tried everything. Our substitutions showed that we wanted to win, and it was important for the club and for the players to find a way to win, which ended up being the case today, regardless of how it was won.

The effort the players put in, the commitment, the unity, and the togetherness that they showed out there is exactly what we need to continue to do. We do things our way, the Stellenbosch way. We’re a team that’s difficult to play against, hard to beat, and I think we demonstrated that today.

I still think in terms of progress, we need to just find ways to create better, clearer opportunities to threaten the opposition goal more. But I’m just really proud of the effort that the players put into this 120 minutes.”

Bouncing back after an earlier defeat to Chiefs in the season

I’m never one who holds grudges or looks to beat a team because of 1-2-3, but I had a strong sense, and the message was to the players that this is an opportunity for some redemption. You know, we’ve had close calls, we’ve had red cards go against us in tight games.

Having lost to them three times last season and once already this season, and when we’ve played them five times in one calendar year, it was important for us not to go lose a fifth game on the trot against them.

So the message was that this was our opportunity to, first of all, win a game so we can get into the last eight, which is the main objective… But it was an important win for us against a team that’s been beating us too regularly for our own liking.

On Sage Stephens’ penalty shootout heroics and their pre-shootout moment

Prayer is powerful, so we just prayed together before the penalty shoot-out. I’m very happy for Sage. He lives with his heart and soul for the club. He gives everything every single time he has the opportunity, and he’s a great leader for the football club.

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Before the game, he was told he was not starting, and he understood it, was fully behind the decision, and fully behind Oscarine [Masuluke]. He deserves that joy of saving two big penalties, and he probably took the calmest penalty out of everybody.

Using cup success as a catalyst for league improvement

I think sometimes we need wins like this to give us the confidence and belief in ourselves and in what we are doing and our processes. When you are not winning as many games as you would want to be, it does throw a little bit of doubt and confidence drops a little bit, so this can be a catalyst for us going forward.

We’ve still got a CAF game coming up, our next fixture away in Equatorial Guinea, which is a long travel before we come back for the Golden Arrows fixture midweek. So yeah, I’m trusting that this could be the catalyst and just what we needed to do as a team and that was to win a game.