Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker is hopeful that the Western Cape Derby will grow to be one of the biggest derbies in South African football.
Barker’s side claimed the bragging rights in the Western Cape Derby after a resounding 3-0 victory over their provincial rivals Cape Town City on Wednesday at Athlone Stadium, goals from Andre de Jong, Fawaaz Basadien and Sanele Barns were enough for Stellies to claim all three points.
The 56-year-old coach said the derby is special and that he is positive that it can be built to have a proper derby feel given the quality of the match and goals deserves more credit.
The country boasts of some of the biggest rivalries in the world including the Soweto derby which is played by Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs and the Tshwane derby which sees crosstown rivals Mamelodi Sundowns lock horns with SuperSport United.
“The derby is special for us we believe, we want to create the derby feeling. We are up there in the Winelands and we are playing against an urban sort of town that may be seen differently out there,” Barker said.
“I trust that we can build this into a real proper derby feel. I know it doesn’t have the appeal as maybe others but it is something that we’ve got to grow and I thought the game and the quality displayed by both teams, the goals that were scored deserves a bit more credit.”
Stellies were forced to play the game at Athlone Stadium with Danie Craven Stadium where they usually play their home games as it is currently being rehabilitated.
Barker lamented the unavailability of their home ground adding that the victory would have been extra special if it was played in their original home ground.
“We had the stadium inspected and it was not given permission to go ahead but it is recovering really well,” the coach said.
“I do believe that our next home game will be there but in a sense, we’ve become immune to not playing there. We’ve played in Durban a number of games that should have been at home.
“We are looking forward to going back and this would have been really special had it been at Danie Craven and the results were the same for our fans.
“I do believe there was quite a number that came up but yeah we want to go back to Danie Craven and just continue to make it our home,” concluded Barker.
The Cape Winelands’ next home game will be against troubled Marumo Gallants on October 30.
They are set to visit Polokwane City this Sunday before shifting the focus to their MTN8 final match against Orlando Pirates which is set to take place at Moses Mabhida on October 5.
