Wits aiming to blunt Arrows

Johannesburg - After a humbling 4-2 defeat away to Platinum Stars in their MTN8 first leg semifinal match, Bidvest Wits will be looking to bounce back to winning ways in the league when they tackle Lamontville Golden Arrows at home on Wednesday evening.

The match is scheduled to kick-off at 19:30 at the Bidvest Stadium.

The Clever Boys were outsmarted by Dikwena in a disastrous second half where they conceded four goals and now they have identified their meeting with Arrows as an opportunity to win back the confidence of their fans.

Wits midfielder Matthew Pattison is hoping to take advantage of Arrows’ poor away record which sees Wits having seven wins and just one defeat from 11 matches down the years.

“They (Arrows) are probably not the greatest of travellers. They don’t have a good record away from home,” said the former Mamelodi Sundowns and Santos man.

“I think we are definitely going to do well against them here at home because we have got a nice vibe here on our night home games.

“The good thing about this match is that it is a league and not a cup game considering that we let ourselves down a bit this past weekend in the MTN8.

“The three days in between fixtures gives us an opportunity to quickly forget about the match against Platinum Stars where we had a ten minute spell of total collapse.”

Wits are placed ninth on the Absa Premiership log with one point from as many matches.

Arrows began their league season with a 1-1 draw at home to Ajax Cape Town.

Abafana Bes’thende are placed eighth on the PSL log with one point from as many matches.

Their assistant coach Shaun Bartlett is targeting at least a point away from home against the expensively assembled Wits side.

“Any game you play at this level, you have to try and get something and it will be no different against Wits,” said Bartlett.

“They’ve got a good squad, obviously they’ve spent some money and they also have a new coach who has plenty of experience in the PSL.

“They’ll be hoping to get another good result in the league, but it’s up to us to make sure that we go there and apply ourselves correctly in order to get something positive from the game.”

The Clever Boys have generally dominated the fixture, claiming 12 wins compared to four for Abafana Bes’thende in their in 22 matches since the 2001/02 season.