John Maduka praises Royal AM players for ‘positive mentality’ despite off-field issues

Royal AM coach John Maduka has praised his charges for staying positive after they claimed a 2-0 win against Sekhukhune despite the club’s off-field issues.

Thwihli Thwahla’s money debacles with former players Ricardo Nascimento and Samir Nurkovic has seen the club face disciplinary action from football governing body FIFA, and they have since been stopped from registering new players.

The situation went on to hit the team’s reserve side badly, as they could not field a team for their matches in the DStv Diski Challenge (DDC).

This forced the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to halt their participation in the league after failing to honour six games due to not having enough players.

Meanwhile, without making any signings in the last three transfer windows, Maduka is happy with how his senior team players are handling themselves with the team having recorded one win, four draws and one loss in their last six games this campaign.

“These boys are working hard here. And, they’re working very, very hard, you know. They put so much effort into training. You know, here is just to present something that has been happening at training,” Maduka told FarPost.

“The attitude has been right. They understand where we are now, and they know that. You see it’s them that must do the work, you know, as we are there to guide them. But at the end of the day, they know that they have to work for each and every week. We can’t sit down and complain and all that. What we need is to work for ourselves.”

Royal AM are in sixth place on the league table with seven points. Next in line for the KwaZulu-Natal club is a fixture against Polokwane City at home on Wednesday.