Casric Stars will be hoping it’s second time lucky when they launch their quest for a place in the Betway Premiership as they prepare to face Orbit College in the opening fixture of the PSL promotion/relegation play-offs on Wednesday (3pm kick-off).
Stars, along with Orbit College and Cape Town City, will battle it out in a tightly contested mini-tournament, with only one spot in the top flight up for grabs at the end of the round-robin series.
This marks their second appearance in the play-offs since purchasing the National First Division status of Free State Stars in the 2022/23 season. Following a disappointing showing in their previous attempt, the Mpumalanga-based club will be aiming for a much better outcome this time around.
Assistant coach and former Mamelodi Sundowns defender, Thabo Nthethe, believes this year presents a great opportunity for the team to prove their worth.
“The boys are excited to be a part of the playoffs this season,” Nthethe told Independent Media.
“We are where we are because we want promotion. This is our opportunity to showcase ourselves, and if we win the mini tournament, we’ll go through. It’s another chance.”
Despite a solid campaign, Nthethe feels they could have finished even higher on the log. Casric was also among the clubs directly affected by the recent player registration saga involving Durban City, which delayed the start of the play-offs and created uncertainty over final standings.
“The boys did well this season, but we should’ve ended the campaign further up the table,” he continued.
“We’ve been doing our best to keep the players motivated because the league took time to finalize things due to the case. We tried to keep the players active and fresh by giving them off days to recover ahead of the tournament, but now we’re ready.”
While many of the players who featured in the 2022/23 play-off campaign have since moved on, Nthethe and current head coach Bucs Mthombeni remain at the helm, alongside a handful of key players who bring valuable experience.
“We still have Thabang Rakwena and Thabang Semache. The coach and I are still here too. We’ve lost a lot of our players to other teams, but the rest of the group understands how we let it slip last time,” said Nthethe.
Reflecting on their previous playoff disappointment — where they failed to register a single goal — Nthete believes the team has made significant progress, including securing the services of key attacker Kermit Erasmus.
“Last time, we didn’t score a single goal. We had no energy, and as a team, we simply didn’t do enough. If we want promotion, we have to score goals — and we didn’t manage that.
“Kermit has been brilliant for us and helped us qualify for the playoffs. We’ve got quality strikers who can get us goals, and with the experience from last season, I expect us to do much better this time.”
