Cape Town Spurs face equalling one of the DStv Premiership’s most unwanted records if they lose again on Tuesday and suffer a sixth successive defeat from the start of the season.
Spurs are up against Lamontville Golden Arrows at the Athlone Stadium still looking for their first points of the season after being beaten in their opening five matches of the new league season since their promotion up to the DStv Premiership.
Only one team in Premier Soccer League history, has previously lost the first six games of a new season but there were mitigating circumstances for Umtata Bush Bucks at the beginning of the 1999/00 campaign.
Renovations to the Independence Stadium meant they were forced to play their first six league games away from home but as the defeats mounted so they swiftly made coaching changes.
Former Kaizer Chiefs midfield great Jan ‘Malombo’ Lechaba took charge of the first three games, which were losses to Free State Stars, Mamelodi Sundowns and Bloemfontein Celtic, after which he was removed from his post.
Club owner Stru Pasiya, no stranger to sitting on the bench, acted as coach for the two games in Cape Town – a 4-1 loss to Mother City, which was one of only two games that Mother City won that season, and Hellenic.
Then Russian-born coach Viktor Bondarenko arrived and his first game in charge was a 1-0 loss at African Wanderers. The losing streak ended as the club returned home for their seventh league game of the season, a 1-1 draw with Jomo Cosmos.
After 14 games, though, Bucks had only one victory but staged a remarkable second recovery in the second half of the season to finish in 13th place and preserve their top flight status.
On top of Bucks and Spurs, only two other clubs have lost their first five games of the new season. Polokwane City were beaten five times in a row from the start of the 2013-14 season, costing Duncan Lechesa his job, but won their sixth game 2-0 at home to Ajax Cape Town.
In the 2020/21 season Maritzburg United lost five, and only collected two points from their opening eight fixtures, but managed to avoid the drop by finishing 13th.
