As it stands Chiefs have now played eight games in a row without winning and are just one game away from matching the all-time winless run of nine games recorded straight after they won the 2001 CAF Cup Winners’ Cup.
Such was the mess that they made of that 2001-02 season that they eventually finished ninth with Black Leopards taking position eight due to a better goal difference.
After lifting that continental trophy – Chiefs suffered defeats to SuperSport United (2-3), Hellenic (1-2) and Orlando Pirates (0-3) then drew the next four against AmaZulu (1-1), Moroka Swallows (1-1), Wits University (0-0), Tembisa Classic (0-0) before losing to both Bush Bucks (1-2) and Mamelodi Sundowns (0-1).
All of these were league matches.
Muhsin Ertugral was the coach at the time during his first spell with the club but then despite sinking that low in the league he made up for it by winning the 2001 BP Top Eight, 2001 Coca-Cola Cup along with the CAF Cup Winners’ Cup.
Having recently already faced the shame of recording their longest spell without scoring after going for five consecutive games without finding the back of the net, AmaKhosi are now also faced with the embarrassment of also falling down to their longest spell without a win.
Chiefs last tasted victory back on February 20 – which is almost two months ago – when they laboured their way to a 2-1 win over SuperSport United at Cape Town Stadium.
Since then they have drawn with Polokwane City (1-1) after which they were handed a walkover on a 3-0 score-line after Comoros club Volcan de Moroni failed to arrive in Durban for their CAF Champions League preliminary round return leg.
That counts as a default result.
They then faced a horror month of March in which they faced the pain of losing to arch-rivals Orlando Pirates (0-2) – a result that saw them getting knocked out of the Nedbank Cup.
Next up was a league defeat to Platinum Stars (0-2) which saw their title defence losing grip followed by a CAF Champions League home defeat to ASEC Mimosas (0-1) and then another league defeat to Jomo Cosmos (0-1) which saw them wave goodbye their chances of retaining the title.
After that they played a goalless draw with the Ivorians – another result that saw them knocked out of the Champions League after a 0-1 aggregate defeat.
Then after the recent FIFA break they finally remembered how to score but still couldn’t win as they drew with Mpumalanga Black Aces (2-2) before playing another goalless draw this past weekend against Ajax Cape Town.
Such has been Chiefs’ fall that they have only taken a mere three points from the 15 that have been available to play for in the last five games leading to a 17 points difference between them and Mamelodi Sundowns at the top.
Chiefs are now mathematically out of contention though there are five games remaining to play for Steve Komphela's men.
Next up for AmaKhosi is a league match against relegation-threatened University of Pretoria next week on Wednesday after which they visit Mamelodi Sundowns.
