Sport

[LOOK] Iqraam Rayners will bounce back says Steve Barker

Sizwe Mbebe|Published

Disappointed: Stellies ace Iqraam Rayners

Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker has no worries about Iqraam Rayners confidence for the remaining games.

The striker has been in sensational form in both the league and Nedbank Cup.

Rayners’ form has helped the club move from a dangerous bottom place in the league to a respectable top eight contender and played a major part in their journey to their first-ever cup semi-finals.

He however missed one of the crucial penalties in the shootout against Sekhukhune United on Sunday evening, which decided the finalist to face Orlando Pirates on 27 May.

“Ikie (Iqraam) will learn from it,” Barker said speaking to reporters at Danie Craven on Sunday. “He gets his head up quickly.

“We have two big league games left, top eight now becomes a priority for us. It’s not long away, August/September, MTN8 we wanna be there.

“We again want to be challenging for a trophy, so we’ve got to pick ourselves up quickly and make sure that we put in two big performances against Maritzburg and Galaxy at home.”

He added that he felt that he was satisfied with the campaign, despite the disappointment of missing out of the final.

“It’s days like this where either becomes great and special, you make the final and finish top eight,”he continued.

“We didn’t make the final, we made a semi-final and hopefully we can finish in the top eight.

Perspectives: Steve Barker

“One has to look back and believe it’s turned out to be a decent season, we had a lot of changes at the beginning of the season. We lost a lot of players.”

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