Mikia Kalati
The LMPS camp is brimming with confidence following last week’s capture of star-striker Tšepo Seturumane from Lioli.
The 2012/13 Vodacom Premier League player-of-the-season announced his arrival with a goal in LMPS’ 2-0 win over Bantu on Sunday.
The massive victory over one of the favourites for the league title has brought so much optimism to the LMPS camp—a feeling the club’s public relations officer, Kotsoane Ramakau, was happy to emphasise in an interview with the Lesotho Times this week.
“We did not perform so well over the last two years and the club had to do something about it,” Ramakau said.
“Management sat down before the season started and identified the problems which had led to this poor showing. The club then realised the only way we could get the desired results was by signing quality players.”
According to Ramakau, the club then decided to entice players who had just joined police training and among them were the Lioli duo of Seturumane and defender Basia Makepe, as well as Bantu’s Tanki Makhele.
“Lucky for us, a number of top players from big teams had come to our institution for training to become police officers and we had to capitalise on that system,” said Ramakau.
“The good thing about it is most of them are still very young, which suited us very well. But we still had to go through the right channels of engaging their clubs first for their services.
“Although it was not easy to get them, Lioli and Bantu finally managed to hear our pleas and agreed to loan us the players.”
However, Ramakau revealed Lioli were only willing to release one of the two players. LMPS then opted for Seturumane as the team struggled to score goals last season, but was not that bad defensively, Ramakau added.
“All in all, we have 12 new players with most of them coming from the A Division. The players’ arrival has paid dividends as we beat Bantu in our first league match of the new season on Sunday,” Ramakau said.
“Believe me when I say the win was no fluke because we were clearly the better team on the day. We deserved the three points and we believe the arrival of these new top signings heralds a new era for LMPS.”
Ramakau further revealed LMPS were in the process of signing seasoned coach, Mahao ‘Bomber’ Matete.
Matete has an impressive CV as far as domestic football is concerned, as he has previously coached Matlama, as well as the various national junior teams and senior side, Likuena.
Matete was among coaches and administrators banned by the Lesotho Football Association in 2012 for taking the federation to court over the election of the executive of the District Football Association of Mokhotlong, but LMPS have pleaded for his pardon.
“We remain confident that he will be cleared to coach again and hopefully, by the end of the week, we will know his fate,” he said.
Ramakau noted although the season had just started, the LMPS hierarchy believed the team was now good enough to challenge for honours after finishing the last campaign 8th on the 14-team premiership log.
Full weekend results
Saturday: Linare 1-4 Likhopo, LCS 0-1 Kick4Life, Lioli 3-0 Sundawana.
Sunday: LDF 1-1 Mphatlalatsane, Matlama 0-0 Rovers, Liphakoe 0-0 Likila, LMPS 2-0 Bantu.
