Moorosi Tsiane
PREMIER League returnees Swallows are set to participate in a one-day preseason tournament featuring Bantu, Majantja and Liphakoe at LCS Ground on Sunday.
The tournament was organised by the four teams to sharpen their squads before the commencement of the season next month.
Swallows who are returning to the elite league this season after almost a decade will face off with Majantja in the morning before defending league champions Bantu take on Liphakoe in the second semifinal.
The winners of the two semifinals will clash later on the day in the final.
This will be Swallow’s second tournament in one month after they were humiliated by a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Lioli in the semi-final of the two-day Alliance Winter Challenge early this month. They were also hammered 3-0 by Matlama in the loser’s final.
Swallows coach Lebohang Matobo told the Sunday Express recently that he welcomed the forthcoming tournament as great platform to sharpen his side before the new season.
Matobo said the Alliance Winter Challenge was also helpful as they had a chance to weigh their side against some of the country’s best teams.
“This tournament will be very helpful to us since it gives us another chance to against the country’ big teams while we get ready for the new season,” Matobo said.
“The Alliance tournament was very helpful because we weighed ourselves and saw the areas which we need to improve.”
He said the Alliance Winter Challenge helped him realise that his side still needs to improve its physical fitness.
“Physically we were still way behind compared to other teams in the league but we have learnt our lesson and changed our programme so the next tournament will similarly be a mirror,” he said.
Swallows won the promotion into the Premier League after winning the league in the A Division Southern stream last season. The side went on to win the lower division Top 8 tournament before clinching the A Division Champs of Champs beating Northern Stream winners Galaxy.
However, Matobo said his team needs to guard against complacency.
“I also think complacency worked against the players in the Alliance Winter Challenge the two losses helped the players put things into perspective so that they know what they are up against. Some of the players thought they would have it easy in the premiership as they did in the A Division where they dominated but it is different and I am sure they got their lesson.”
Matobo said they are also working to boost their squad with some experienced players.
“We conceded eight goals in two matches and we failed to score and that means we have a real problem so we need to boost the team starting from the back to the strikers. We are in talks with few players and as soon as everything is finalised we will release their identities,” Matobo said.