Leal’s philosophy paying off

Swallows have almost been faultless in their last two league matches and are still over the moon following back-to-back impressive victories. They thumped Santos 3-0 in Cape Town and then followed that up with a 2-0 beating of Chiefs over the weekend.

The results put the club fifth on the table with seven points, three behind the leaders SuperSport United.

_quote “Our form shows that the players are well-acquainted with the coach’s philosophy which is built on playing attacking football and being disciplined in defence.

“The players have put that into practice in the last two games and the results are coming,” says the Bafana Bafana midfielder.

The Birds caught Chiefs napping with two first half goals from Phumelele Bhengu and were impressive in defence as their Soweto rivals fiercely tried to fight their way back into the game.

Swallows thought they had wrapped up with a third ‘goal’ courtesy of Tsutsulupa himself, but it was disallowed.

“I am not going to comment about the ‘goal’. Anyway, it was disallowed. What is important is that we got the maximum points we needed.”

Earlier in the game, the 28-year-old’s long-range drive crashed against the post with Itumeleng Khune well-beaten.

Tsutsulupa believes the Birds can build on the back-to-back victories and challenge for honours this season.

Swallows had an up-and-down season in 2007/08 under now-Thanda Royal Zulu assistant coach Ian Gorowa and just managed to scrape into the last Top Eight spot.

“We can make an impression this season if we maintain the standards that we have set. When the league resumes after the international action, we will have to take up from where we left off.”