By Motlalepula Maduna
Kaizer Chiefs will be desperately looking to collect maximum points when they clash against Bidvest Wits on Wednesday evening at the Bidvest stadium.
Stuart Baxter finds himself in an unfamiliar situation in his second season in charge of the Naturena based side. Having been in the driving seat for the whole of last season and eventually winning the league with a game to spare, this season’s 
title race is bound to go down to the wire between the defending champions and current log leaders with Wits having a distant chance of finishing first. Baxter knows his side will have to do better than last season with Sundowns having already surpassed the number of points which won Chiefs the title last season.
The significance of this game from Chiefs perspective was evident over the weekend when Stuart Baxter fielded a relatively weaker side against Ivorian outfit Asec Abidjan in the first leg of the Confederation Cup played at the Dobsonville stadium. Chiefs went on to lose the game by 2-1 and are now in danger of crashing out of the less-fancied tournament they were initially relegated to, courtesy of a 3-2 aggregate loss to A.S Vita of the DRC.
With the African aspirations seemingly neglected and cut short, ‘Amakhosi’ will look to once again conquer the PSL for the second successive season which will enable them to have another bite at next year’s Caf Champions League campaign. A win against third placed Wits will not only cut Mamelodi Sundowns lead to just 3points but will virtually deny Gavin Hunt’s men any chance of clinching the coveted trophy. Baxter will be hoping that forward Bernard Parker returns with his goal-scoring boots following a number of recent poor performances in front of goals which might have played a role in the team surrendering their top spot to the ‘Brazilians’. On the other hand, Chiefs defence will need to keep a close eye on resurrected former striker Sthembiso Ngcobo who has been a thorn in the opposition’s side since joining the ‘Clever Boys’ in the January transfer.
