Barker very happy after Stellies successful weekend

Ashley Du Preez sprinting passed Mosa Lebusa and Grant Kekana

Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker admits that it was a very special day for the club after defeating Mamelodi Sundowns in the DStv Premiership on Saturday plus their reserve teams success.

The Cape-based side defeated Sundowns 3-0 at the Absa Tuks Stadium in Pretoria thanks to a brace from Ashley Du Preez and a goal via Jayden Adams.
This was he first time ever that Stellies had beaten Sundowns and the victory coincided with the Stellenbosch FC reserve team being crowned DStv Diski Challenge champions hours earlier.
“For the whole football club, [it] is a special day, to have achieved what we have done with the youngsters [winning the DStv Diski Challenge] and to have come here in their backyard of Sundowns and beat them 3-0,” Barker said told media.
“The season started well – 11 games unbeaten, then we had a little bit of a wobble midway but we’ve sort of recovered and we’re finishing strong. One more game, a big derby next week against Cape Town City.
“We’ve achieved our objective of a top 8 [finish in the league] and now we can dream of ending even higher. So yes, a magnificent day for us.”
Barker said he was proud of his sides performance against Sundowns by defending well and looking good up front when it mattered.
“When you play Sundowns, it starts with defending well so we had to do,” Barker added. “They are a team that if you give them too much time on the ball, they can get comfortable. They don’t like a team that is a bit aggressive in defence.
“We knew that they would leave a high line. With the way they have possession so deep in our half, any time we would have an opportunity was to play Ashley Du Preez in behind. We knew his pace would cause them problems with the two goals.
“Our third goal was a bit of class from the youngster Jadon Adams and after that it was just really suffering as a team out of possession, going with runners, pressing, so I am very proud of the effort.
“We didn’t allow them to be the Sundowns that they can be but they’ve also won the league already so we probably had a bit more to play for than them. But they are a club that is built on success and winning is in their DNA so I don’t think they came out not wanting to win the game, I just felt that we played the situation really well.
“You could see that as the game wore on, they ran out of ideas, and threw on a lot of attacking players. I wouldn’t say we caught them on a bad day, I thought we were just good,” Barker concluded.

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