Orlando Pirates fans despondent at their club's poor start to the season will be pleased to hear that their team still believe they can retain the championship.
And striker James Mothibi, scorer of the Buccaneers' goal in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Manning Rangers at Orlando Stadium, has declared himself the man to make The Ghost a happy lot.
"It's too early to start saying Pirates will not retain their title," Mothibi said.
"People should remember that Sundowns struggled a bit after winning the league title. Also, Jomo Cosmos lost a few matches after they had won the Coca-Cola Cup. When you're a champion, the other clubs always go the extra mile when they play you so they can say they have beaten the champions."
Having opened his goalscoring account for his new club, Mothibi is confident he will soon start repaying the Bucs technical team's faith in him.
"It's good now that I've scored my first goal. I wanted to score in my first match to give myself a good welcome to the club, but unfortunately that did not happen," he said.
"Against Rangers, I wanted to score three goals or at least help the club win. I thought I had netted the winner when I scored that penalty, and was disappointed when Rangers equalised. But that's not the end of the world. We're going to do well in our next matches."
Substituted early in the second half, Mothibi had troubled the Rangers defence even though he played as a lone striker.
He made some dangerous runs into the box but was let down by the supply from his team-mates.
Why Roy Barreto took him off was just as baffling as the presence of former coach Viktor Bondarenko at the match.
The Russian coach of the Mozambique national side has expressed a keenness to return to South Africa, and with Barreto under pressure from the fans, it would not be surprising if Bondas were to return to coach Pirates for a third stint.
While Pirates again failed to display a performance worthy of the champions tag hanging around their necks, Rangers were impressive. They played some crisp, passing football with Gideon Noge particularly dangerous on the left flank.
Luckily for Pirates, Steve Komphela pulled him off to blunt the sting in the Mighty Maulers' game.
In other matches played on Saturday, Black Leopards pushed Hellenic coach Clemens Westerhof closer to the exit door with a 1-0 victory over the Greek Gods in Thohoyandou.
It was Hellenic's fourth loss in as many games while Lidoda Duvha registered their first maximum points of the campaign.
Captain Edries Burton scored the game's only goal in Santos's win over the previous unbeaten Silver Stars, while Zulu Royals and Dynamos drew 1-1.