Pirates face off with Tunisian club Etoile du Sahel in the final of the continent’s secondary club competition with the first leg scheduled for Orlando Stadium this weekend.
Based on previous experiences in two-legged CAF club games, Tinkler has stressed the importance of keeping a clean sheet at home.
“If you remember when we played Al Ahly in the final [2013 CAF Champions League] we played them at home and we drew 1-1,” the head coach recalled.
Pirates drew 1-1 at home in the CAF Champions League final two years ago and then went on to suffer a 0-2 defeat away in Egypt while this year – against the same opponents, Al Ahly – The Bucs won 1-0 at home and then staged an upset in winning 4-3 away.
“Key to our success against them in the semi-finals was the fact that we didn’t concede at home and that was something I had to reiterate strongly to the players,” Tinkler continued. “It was very important for us to win at home, but it was more important not to concede at home and we achieved that objective and that was is what we need to apply in this game as well.
“Yes, we need to go all out and we would like to win the game 2-0, 3-0 but I would prefer to win the game 1-0 than to win the game 3-1 because that one away goal makes a huge difference. I think that is what helped when we went to play Al Ahly because we had won 1-0 at home.
"Yes they scored, but we always knew that once we scored one then we would be back in the tie and for our confidence it will be very good and for them, they would have to deal with the fact that we have scored away.
"I believe our form away from home has been extremely good and we have managed to score in every game away from home and I believe we will do that (in the final), but it is very important that in this game we don’t concede at home,” he stressed.
Kick-off on Saturday is scheduled for 8pm.