ONLY three points sepa- rate Bloemfontein Celtic and bottom-of-the-log AmaZulu, but Phunya SeleSele players maintained that they were not feeling any pressure.

Talk from striker Lerato Lamola, going into their eighth match of the season against Polokwane City at the Kaizer Sebothelo Stadium with only six points, was at odds with their position.

Even club chairman Max Tshabalala and head coach Ernst Middendorp have conceded that, given the current state of affairs, they were both feeling hot under the collar and there was mounting pressure to bring about results and drag Celtic out of the quagmire.

Lamola's confidence can perhaps be understood, as the scorer of Celtic's opener against Kaizer Chiefs in the Sparta Macufe Cup on Sunday.

Chiefs equalised almost immediately afterwards to send the match into a penalty shootout, which Celtic won 5-3.

Perhaps the tough talk about not being under pressure is their way of relieving under-fire Middendorp of the heavy burden he has been carrying since the beginning of the season.

Or perhaps, in Polokwane City, who are below Celtic in the league standings with four points, they see fellow strugglers they can collect maximum points from.

Celtic have lost three of their seven matches so far this season, winning just one. It remains to be seen how they will fare on Sunday.

Defender Keegan Ritchie, who, for a brief moment seemed unaware that they were the hosts when he said they would "go to Polokwane" on Sunday, said they would approach the match with nothing but maximum points on their minds.

"The win [against Chiefs] was a step in the right direction. We have to go into the next game with the same attitude and winning mentality.

"We just have to win, there is no two ways about it. We have to go to Polokwane and get the three points," Ritchie said.

Kickoff is at 3.30pm.