27 Feb 2023

Geronah coach, Gaolethoo Nkutlwisang, is optimistic that her team will soon turn tables around.

After going down 0-2 to Police XI in the Gaborone City Regional Women’s Football League game at Lekidi on Saturday, Nkutlwisang still upheld her confidence about her side making a comeback.

“This was one of the games that we felt we would easily win. This is one aspect that might have led us to start poorly. We gave away too many balls to the opponents and the input from my players was low,” she said.

Nkutlwisang, who also coaches the women national team, said should they have approached the game with the mentality they used in the second half, the result might have been different.

She said looking at the whole performance though, her team was not that bad despite two goals conceded.

“The two goals were conceded from just minor mistakes and mistakes are not that bad provided you learn from them and do not repeat them. We may have lost but I will not dwell on the loss looking at the makeup of my team, which uses mostly new and young players who are in their first season,” she said. 

Nkutlwisang said her team was also affected by losing the bulk of the players that she was using last season due to work commitments.  

“Majority of the current team, about 70 per cent I would say, are newly registered players and most of them are U-17s and U-20s. So if you face an experienced team such as Police XI with these youngsters it’s bound to be an uphill,” she said.

Nkutlwisang said the fact that they lost the previous game 0-6 before their 0-2 loss gave her hope that they will do better in their next game.

“We managed to reduce the margin and we are hopeful that the next game will be much better. If we could score or at least play to a draw, it would be a positive thing,” she said.

For his part, the winning coach, Ernest Olebile, said his team managed to win the game by taking control of the midfield.

“The ability of my team to adapt to the flow of the game worked for us. We had three strikers and three midfielders, but each time we lost the ball the other two strikers would come and beef up the midfield, leaving a sole attacker upfront,” he said.

In their last game, Police XI plunged 14 goals without reply against Legends.

“Games and teams come in different shapes. Geronah is one of the best teams in the league, coached by one of the best coaches, so we didn’t expect to have it easy against them from the onset.”

Police got their first goal on the stroke of half time when Kaone Booja slotted home after Geronah keeper, Joyce Bareng fumbled a cross from captain, Kelebogile Maripe.

Phatsimo Bose added a second one on the 54th minute with a curler inside the box to give Police maximum points. 

Police have so far collected six points from four games while Geronah have managed just three from as many games. ENDs