NEWS: Thulani Hlatshwayo sings praises of SuperSport United’s youngsters, spurs Shandre Campbell and company ahead of ties with Soweto giants

Hlatshwayo is one of the senior players in the DStv Premiership as he has previously captained Bafana Bafana and is Matsatsantsa A Pitori’s vice skipper to Onismor Bhasera.

This season, ‘Tyson’ has been paired with 20-year-old Ime Okon on a number of occasions, and he did well to hold the hand of the rookie, who has grown in leaps and bounds alongside the veteran.

“The mandate and the objectives of what the team wanted with the youngsters, I think they have achieved them. The senior players who we have in the team can guide the youngsters,” said Hlatshwayo.

“We’ve done so well with the youngsters that we have in the team. When you look at the percentage of youngsters that we have, for them it is experience, especially playing in Africa. I think Shandre Campbell has played over 1000 minutes this season and we have many debutants,” he added.

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SuperSport’s slim squad, however, has to soldier on for the last time this season in DStv Premiership games against Soweto giants Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows.

The capital city side will host The Dube Birds in the penultimate game of the league season this Saturday before wrapping up the campaign away to the Buccaneers.

Hlatshwayo hopes his side can creep into the top four as there are only two points between SuperSport and fourth-placed Sekhukhune United.

“We know that there are two games to go and we know how important they are. We have to get six points against Swallows and Pirates.

“The attitude has been good and the one thing we have to do is to take our chances because we do create chances but we don’t convert them. For us it is to make sure that we score goals and we defend our goals,” Hlatshwayo explained.

“If we win the next two games, we might possibly finish in fourth place in this difficult season where we have learned a lot. We have had a lot of traveling compared to last season. We never lost at home the entire season,” he added.