United face AmaZulu (ticket details HERE) at the Harry Gwala on Wednesday night and will be looking to reverse a first round 3-2 loss to the Durban side, while also hoping to bounce back from last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs.

He believes that some fine-tuning in attack, coupled with better concentration at the back, will see Maritzburg rise up the PSL rankings.

“The good thing is that we are an attacking side and create plenty of opportunities in every game.

“Against Ajax, we won 3-0, but it could have been five or six goals. Against Chiefs last week we created good chances to score, and even missed a penalty.”

The Bafana Bafana World Cup squad shot stopper feels his team can look to the world’s best for inspiration.

“If you look at the Barcelona team of five years back, they were similar in that they created and scored lots of goals, but also conceded many.”

Although he does admit improvement in defence of a big priority.

“We need to sort this out. Obviously it’s an issue and we are working hard on it. If you look at the goals we’ve let in, many of them are silly mistakes, things that can be rectified.”

Looking to the AmaZulu game, Walters commented as follows:

“AmaZulu have very fast attackers who can hit a team on the counter-attack, we need to make sure we are well organised at the back.

“Its going to be tough, a KZN derby, but with AmaZulu close to us on the log it’s important that we win.

“We’ve won two and lost two this year, and we want to get some more consistency and get away from the relegation dog fight.

Team news:

David Booysen and Kurt Lentjies are both out suspended, but Byrone Hendricks is available again, following his suspension.

Match Stats

Match Details

Maritzburg United v AmaZulu
Date: 02 February 2011
Kick-off: 19h30
Venue: Harry Gwala Stadium

Match Info

- Absa Premiership clubs Maritzburg United and AmaZulu will meet for a KwaZulu-Natal derby at the Harry Gwala Stadium on Wednesday evening, kick-off at 19h30.

- Maritzburg come into the game off the back of a 3-1 loss away to Kaizer Chiefs over the weekend.

- The Team of Choice have lost three of their last four league matches and conceded three goals on each occasion. They are placed third from bottom (14th), five points above the relegation zone.

- AmaZulu have picked up four points from their last two matches. On the weekend they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Bloemfontein Celtic.

- Usuthu have won just one of their last five matches, but with 19 points to their name and placed 12th on the log they are well clear of the relegation zone at present.

- In head-to-head stats, Maritzburg and AmaZulu have met seven times in the league since 2006/07.

- The Team of Choice has won five of those encounters and suffered defeat only once, outscoring Usuthu 13 goals to seven.

- Yet when the teams met earlier this season AmaZulu managed to pull off a 3-2 win (their only league victory over United) thanks to goals from Ayanda Dlamini (a brace) and Lehlohonolo Majoro.

- Maritzburg’s line-up from their 3-1 loss to Chiefs: Walters; Petersen, Diouf, Alder, Ngwepe; Schalkwyk, Arwuah (Madondo 81’), Nyatama (Obada 62’), Lentjies; Bester, Sibisi (Davids 56’).

- AmaZulu’s line-up from their 1-1 draw with Celtic: Mzimela; Mbhele (Mnyingwa 86’), Ariweriyai, Nyadombo, Mokoro; Sangweni, Sikhakhane, Hadebe; Shipahu, A. Dlamini, Majoro (G. Dlamini 74’).

Maritzburg

League position – 14th

Last five league results

29/01/11 A Kaizer Chiefs L 1-3
22/01/11 A Golden Arrows L 0-3
19/01/11 H Ajax Cape Town W 3-0
15/01/11 A Mamelodi Sundowns L 0-3
07/01/11 H MP Black Aces W 1-0

Next five league fixtures

05/02/11 H Bloemfontein Celtic
12/02/11 A Moroka Swallows
16/02/11 H Platinum Stars
19/02/11 A SuperSport United
25/02/11 H Santos

AmaZulu

League position – 12th

Last five league results

29/01/11 H Bloemfontein Celtic D 1-1
23/01/11 A Moroka Swallows W 4-0
19/01/11 A Kaizer Chiefs L 1-3
16/01/11 H Golden Arrows L 1-2
08/01/11 H Ajax Cape Town L 1-2

Head-to-Head Stats

2006/07

Maritzburg 2 (Witlwer, Ndlovu) AmaZulu 2 (Moshoeu, Chenene)

AmaZulu 0 Maritzburg 2 (Davids 2)

2008/09

Maritzburg 2 (Ngwepe, Davids) AmaZulu 1 (Ariweriyai)

AmaZulu 1 (Ngwenya) United 2 (Aka, Zimba)

2009/10

Maritzburg 2 (Davids, Chivuta) AmaZulu 0

AmaZulu 0 Maritzburg 1 (Davids)

Telkom Knockout first round – AmaZulu 1 (Ngwenya) Maritzburg 0

Nedbank Cup first round – Maritzburg 0 AmaZulu 1 (Ritson)

2010/11

AmaZulu 3 (A. Dlamini 2, Majoro) Maritzburg 2 (Bester, Mkhonza (og))