After three defeats this season, Sekhukhune United will look to end Orlando Pirates’ dominance when the sides meet in a Carling Knockout quarterfinal clash at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.

The Buccaneers have already beaten Babina three times this season – once in the Betway Premiership and twice in the two-legged MTN8 semi-finals.

Despite this good record against them, Zothwane says his players are confident and ready to take on Pirates.

“You can’t dwell on the past based on what happened in our past results against Orlando Pirates. It’s a new game. Our job as coaches is to give the players confidence, give them the structure and make them aware of the strengths and weaknesses of Pirates,” said Zothwane during a media conference at the PSL offices in Parktown on Thursday.

Zothwane added that his players could not allow the past results against Pirates to dictate their confidence. He wants to retain the consistency he believes Babina Noko have developed over their past six matches.

“It can’t be played the same way. We have to change a bit. We still want to keep the consistency of the team because we feel that in the past six games the team has done very well,” commented Zothwane.

Ouaddou warns Pirates

Meanwhile, Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has warned his charges against assuming they will repeat their previous results.

Ouaddou also recalled the difficulties Pirates encountered against Zothwane’s Richards Bay team last season.

“I have warned my players that this will be one of our toughest games under the current coach, Papi Zothwane,” said Ouaddou.

“While he was there during our previous meetings, I don’t believe he had fully implemented his ideas then; now, he is firmly in charge. If I remember correctly, we struggled against Richards Bay when he was involved. This will be a very difficult game; we must be at our best to win.”