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Marques' 'day' has come

Johannesburg - The nickname of promotion-seeking PSL First Division club Black Leopards is "Lidoda Duvha".

Loosely translated it means "The day will come."

And for exhibitionist, but engaging Leopards coach Zeca Marques, "the day" has certainly come.

Marques returns to Dobsonville Stadium on Wednesday to face his long-time former club, Moroka Swallows, in what could be the key encounter in the three-team PSL  promotion contest that also features Jomo Cosmos.

"It will be strange and certainly ironic returning to the ground I looked on as home during my many years of association with Swallows," said the coach who was at one time known as "Mr Lollipop" for his penchant of sucking a lollipop to ease the tension on the bench and then became renowned for disrobing and hurling his jacket to the ground each time his team scored a goal.

"We won the MTN8 title during my stay with Swallows, before an inexplicable slump earlier this season and having left the club less than six months ago, I still know everyone and
everything there backwards," said Marques.

"But I'm 100 per cent a Leopards man right now after a fairytale four months at the club during which we qualified for the promotion play-off by improving from 11th to third in the NFD log table and eliminating PSL champions Kaizer Chiefs from the Nedbank Cup in the process."

Marques said his association with Leopards had proved so mutually successful that it had already been agreed he would remain with the club next season - irrespective of the outcome of the present promotion play-off.

"Beating the Premier League champions in the Nedbank Cup has provided us with the knowledge, self-belief and confidence that we can take on any team in the PSL with a chance of winning - and that includes Swallows," said the Leopards coach.

"I don't think the fact that I know the Swallows players intimately will be a major factor either way in the game on Wednesday night," added Marques, "but there are a couple of pointers I will pass onto my players that could help."

Leopards have already got off on the right foot in the play-offs with Sunday's impressive 2-0 win against Cosmos, but Marques concedes it is the home-and-away games against Swallows that could be decisive.

As to whether there will be any jacket-throwing at Dobsonville Stadium, Marques said he was loathe to make any predictions.

"Let's just wait and see what will happen when the day will come," he said with a smile.

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