Gordon Igesund, the Moroka Swallows, kicked off the war of wars as the Birds approach the most sensitive stage of flirting with fate in the Absa Premiership.

Today, Igesund turned the offensive charm as he faced members of the media as part of the build-up to a must-win Absa Premiership encounter against Maritzburg United at the Harry Gwala Stadium.

Swallows and rivals, Orlando Pirates are the only contenders left for the Absa Premiership contenders. The Dube Birds trail Pirates by two points. The maths is simple: they must win and hope Pirates lose or draw at the Moses Mabhida against Golden Arrows.

It is a situation that doesn’t need a rocket scientist to work out and, Igesund is aware of this.

“Personally, there’s a lot more pressure on Pirates. Everybody expects Pirates to win the league. They’ve got the best team in the league. We’re just happy to be where we are, to be able to go out and maybe snatch it from them,” the Swallows coach said.

“We are very proud to be in contention to win the ABSA Premiership, because at the end of the day our hard work and dedication has final paid off.

“There is a mixture of young and experienced players in our team and we haven’t signed any big name players, but we are successfully second on the log. If you looked at us last season we were battling in the relegation zone and collected a sterling 30 points in the second half of last season and we survived. So to be honest this season was more of a continuation from last season so I am very proud of my boys.”

Igesund said he expects Arrows to do Pirates no favour. He is relying on Arrows to pull an upset against the Bucs.

“As a coach it is my duty to know what is the score in the other game and I know Mushin (Ertugral) is a very experience coach and is not going to hand over the game to Pirates on a silver platter.”

On-form Moroka Swallows player David Mathebula there is belief in the Birds team that they can go all the way on Saturday.

“We have to have faith in ourselves, because playing against Maritzburg United on their home ground is never going to be easy.

“We have to go all out to collect the three points which means we have to go for broke. Personally this has been my best season as I have started in 90% of the games this season where by the other past seasons I didn’t feature much.

“I have scored the most goals in a season with 10 goals and have been nominated for player and players of the season which is a huge motivation for me and I must say I am under the guidance of a very experience coach who has helped me become who I am today.

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