A place in next season’s Betway Premiership will be up for grabs when the Premier Soccer League (PSL) promotional play-offs get underway next Wednesday. Orbit College will host Casric Stars in the opening clash at Olympia Stadium in Rustenburg (kick-off 3pm).
The Rustenburg-based side finished second on the NFD Motsepe Foundation Championship table, just five points behind league winners Durban City, who secured automatic promotion after a stellar campaign.
The college side’s impressive run earned them a spot in the mini-league playoffs, which will see three teams battle it out for one remaining berth in South Africa’s top-flight league.
Completing the trio of hopefuls is Cape Town City, who finished second-last in the Betway Premiership and will now be fighting to retain their elite status.
The format will be straightforward: each team plays the other home and away, and the team that accumulates the most points over the six fixtures will be crowned promotional play-off champions and earn a place in the Premiership for the 2025/26 season.
This marks Orbit College’s maiden appearance in the promotion play-offs, a testament to the club’s significant progress over the past year. From a ninth-place finish in the previous season, the team climbed into the top three, thanks to consistent performances and key tactical shifts under head coach Pogiso Makhoye.
After weeks of uncertainty caused by an investigation into City’s alleged use of an ineligible player, the confirmation of play-off dates has brought relief and focus for Makhoye and his charges.
“We were waiting for the date, and it has been confirmed, so we are ready to go,” Makhoye told Independent Newspapers.
The coach is especially eager to see his side take on Casric Stars, a team that has had the upper hand in their recent matchups, but Makhoye is confident that past results will matter little in a high-pressure playoff scenario.
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“In our preparations, we are putting everything into the first game, and we will only start thinking about the second match once we get what we want from the first one,” he said.
“It’s a different game now. The playoffs are not the same as the regular league season.
“We’ve improved our preparations, we’ve identified our weaknesses, and we are going to take our chances. Maybe it’s time to break that hoodoo. It would be great to do that in the playoffs.”
Makhoye also addressed the looming challenge of facing a PSL side in Cape Town City. Although the Citizens come with top-tier experience, the coach believes that his side’s presence in the playoffs proves they are no pushovers.
“We’re not here by mistake,” he said.
“I think we deserve to be where we are. If we say we’re ready for the PSL, we need to test ourselves against teams like Cape Town City.”
He added, “At the end of the day, it’s eleven against eleven.
“The only difference is the league we’re coming from. We’ve played friendlies against the likes of Sekhukhune United and Orlando Pirates, so this won’t be entirely new for us. We just need to apply ourselves, stay focused, and perform because everyone knows what’s at stake now.”
