Orlando Pirates meet Golden Arrows for the second time this season, this time in a Telkom Knockout first round encounter on Sunday.
The game is scheduled to kick off at 3pm at the Orlando Stadium, the same venue where Bucs started their season in such a positive manner with a 3-1 league victory over Arrows, courtesy of a hat-trick by Tendai Ndoro.
However, things have changed somewhat since that game at the end of August as since then Pirates have crashed out of the MTN8 competition while they go into Sunday's match having drawn their last three matches.
Despite this, the Sea Robbers are still handily placed in the league, in third position.
Arrows, meanwhile, have shot up to joint first place, behind Kaizer Chiefson goal difference, after four wins and a draw in their last five encounters.
"We’re not the same team that played Pirates in the first league game," Arrows coach Clinton Larsen, a former Pirates player, explained.
"We have improved and it was good lesson for us to learn that first hammering by Pirates. We made a lot of defensive errors and we came back and worked on them and since then defensively we are very solid.
"We are one of the best [defensively] in the league and we want try and continue with that. We pride ourselves on our organisation and keeping clean sheets and I think the players have bought into that."
Bucs coach Ertugral, who had a spell in charge of Arrows, is not as happy as Larsen about the way his own defence has been shaping up, with his side having conceded a number of soft goals this season.
"We are not playing that well at the moment, the patterns are not right, the organization is not that good, a lot of elements we need to look in to, we are definitely not very happy. We need to work better as a team, we are still having too much individual play," he said.
"Even last season we had defensive issues, I didn't take over a team that conceded 15 or 20 goals, so I knew the challenge was there. We need to trust each other more, but new players have come in, others have left and no one has a magic stick, this takes time.
"We played against Arrows in the first game in the Absa Premiership and we won that game, but we saw how good they are as a team. They are on top of the log in the league and you don't do that by mistake, but through hard work and commitment."
Arrows will be without striker Lerato Lamola, who is nursing an injured ankle, while Lehlohonolo Nonyane faces a late fitness test. Kudakwashe Mahachi is back in contention after recovering from an arm injury.
Ertugral has several concerns asstrikers Ndoro and Thabiso Kutumela both face late fitness tests, while Edwin Gyimah, Gladwin Shitolo and Nkosinathi Mthiyane are all sidelined with injury. Neither side has any suspensions.
