Publications
Partners
Pietermaritzburg - Maritzburg United veteran skipper Kurt Lentjies has admitted going through a relegation battle for the duration of the Absa Premiership season was a horrible experience - and one they would not like to go through again.
The ‘Team of Choice’ endured a long season as they spent most rounds of the 2015/16 campaign rooted to the bottom of the log, but dramatically saved their top flight status in the final 10 minutes of the season when they came back up from a goal down to defeat Jomo Cosmos 3-1 away from home and ensure their safety.
Despite being written off by the South African football fraternity heading into the closing stages of last season, the former Mamelodi Sundowns striker said that the KwaZulu-Natal-based team "believed, fought like soldiers and were rewarded at the end of the day".
“I think that’s an experience most footballers wouldn’t go through in their careers,” said Lentjies.
“In our last game we were 1-0 down at half-time and things were not going our way.
“And we asked ourselves if this is the season we are going down or do we still have the same fighting spirit we showed throughout the season without getting the results we deserved?
“But we still had the belief and faith amongst each other and the coach told us at half-time that Tuks were leading 2-0 and as things stood, we were going to be automatically relegated.
“And the guys responded positively to that, they went all out in the second half and it took longer than we anticipated to score, because we had to wait until the last 10 minutes for the heavens to pour on us.
“We scored three goals and defended very well, which was our weakness in the season considering that we were always conceding in the last minutes.
“But now we are here, still going to compete in the Premiership.”
