Tinkler demands hard work as Durban City chase CAF Confederation Cup group stage

Durban City head coach Eric Tinkler says his side must work “extremely hard” to reach the CAF Confederation Cup group stage as they prepare to host AS Port-Louis 2000 in the second preliminary round on Sunday.

The Citizens are two matches away from securing a place in the group phase of their maiden continental campaign, having beaten Burundi’s Rukinzo FC 3-1 on aggregate in the opening preliminary round under former coach Khalil Ben Youssef.

Tinkler’s first official game in charge ended in a 2-1 home defeat by KwaZulu-Natal rivals AmaZulu in the league on Tuesday. The former South Africa international, who took over just over a week ago, said the result exposed areas that require attention but praised his players for their response after the break.

“I think obviously first off we got punished on two counter-attacks. They’re a very, very dangerous team on the counter,” Tinkler said.

“Made a couple of changes at half-time and I thought the response was very, very good in the second half. We got ourselves a goal and then that brought us back into the game and possibly towards the end there may be an even equaliser. So happy with how the players responded.”

Tinkler had overseen several friendly matches since his appointment, but said the league fixture gave him a clearer assessment of the team’s strengths and weaknesses.

“I haven’t been here too long, just over 10 days now. A couple of friendlies that we played to get to know the players a little bit, try and implement some of my fundamentals and my principles… And training or friendly matches are not the same thing as a real match,” he said.

“Tonight was the first time that I can actually observe the team in certain areas where we still need to improve on both offensively and defensively. There’s still quite a bit of work that we need to do on the intensity and the energy at which we need to play at.”

The fixture against AS Port-Louis 2000 comes during a busy domestic period, with Durban City also due to face Mamelodi Sundowns. However, Tinkler said continental football was a major reason for his move to the club and that retaining their place in the competition was now a priority.

“Just being involved in CAF competitions is what every club wants to be involved in, and what every coach wants to be involved in. I think for us as a club now, we have an opportunity to possibly get ourselves into the group stage, so the game on the weekend is a very important match. First the home game, and then the away game,” he said.

“It’s very crucial because it’s one of the reasons why I came here – because we’re in the CAF Confed. So we want to remain in the CAF Confed. You can never take anything for granted in life. We’re going to have to work extremely hard against them in order to make sure that we get ourselves to that group stage.”

Kick-off at Moses Mabhida Stadium is at 3pm on Sunday.