Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune has encouraged his side to continue to "fight for the badge" ahead of Sunday's highly anticipated encounter against league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.
Following their 2-1 defeat at home to Cape Town City on Wednesday, Gavin Hunt's men dropped down to the 11th position on the Premier Soccer League table and also saw an eight-game unbeaten run end abruptly.
Khune, though, has encouraged his side to "dig deeper" for the results with only eight matches left until the end of the season.
''Things have been going well, it’s good to be back, it's good to be playing, it’s good to be playing,'' Khune told his club's media team on Friday,
''But, yes, we've been playing very well and it's just that the results haven't been coming our way, so we really have to dig deeper to get the results because there is only eight games left of the 2020/2021 season, so we just have to keep working hard, grinding for the results and make the Khosi [Amakhosi] faithful proud of their team.
Next Match
''Sundowns have been doing very well but at this stage, we are only focused on ourselves, we are focusing on our game plan, we are focusing on how we can take advantage of the opportunities we create.
''We are taking it one game at it comes, but it is important that every game we go to now, we going to dig deep for the results, and we are going to fight until the end.
''It hasn't been a very easy season for us from start, but we are clubbing together as a team, we fight for each other and we fight for the badge.''
In their next encounter, Amakhosi face a Sundowns side that is unbeaten in 21 league matches. And Khune, who also bemoaned Chiefs' costly defensive mistakes, has called for maximum concentration.
''I think we have to minimize the mistakes because every time we concede goals if you look at the way we concede, it's through lapses of concentration," Khune added.
"So, if we can just concentrate more and minimise mistakes, I think we can avoid conceding those silly goals, but it takes the whole team to stay focussed, to stay switched on throughout the 90-minutes.
"But as a goalkeeper, obviously you have to lead from the back and you just have to keep all the players on their toes, keep reminding them to stay switched on.''
Despite their struggles domestically, Chiefs have performed admirably on the continent, being one of the sides who have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Caf Champions League along with their next opponents.
