TS Galaxy captain Given Msimango is feeling optimistic about his side’s chances at delaying Mamelodi Sundowns’ title charge.

Having ended a poor run of form with back-to-back wins over Baroka FC and Cape Town City, Galaxy have for the time being secured their top eight status and have also put more breathing space between themselves and the relegation zone in what is a very congested bottom half of the PSL table.

As such it’s an invigorated Rockets side which heads into Sunday’s home match against Masandawana, who beat Maritzburg United 2-0 on Wednesday to move four points clear at the summit.

“We’ve seen the quality Sundowns possesses in their previous games. We know they have a great squad and they are playing fantastic football at the moment – they are top of the log and I don’t think it’s a fluke that they are there,” Msimango told the TS Galaxy media department.

“Facing them this weekend is going to be a tough task for us. But we have prepared properly for it physically and mentally.

“Yes, Sundowns has a very dangerous attack, we’ve prepared very well for it. We’ve planned for anything that will come accordingly and so it’s up to us to apply ourselves properly when it comes to game day.”

Galaxy will be up against a former teammate in Peter Shalulile, who joined Sundowns from Highlands Park before the takeover by former second-tier club Galaxy.

“Peter Shalulile is my former teammate of course,” said central defender Msimango. “I don’t think that will play any role, because the player that he was then and the player he is now are two different things.

“He’s in fantastic form, a quality striker, scoring a lot of goals for his team. We are very much aware of his strengths, but not only his strengths – there are a lot of other players we need to be wary of. It’s our duty as a team not to focus only on one player, but to try and prepare for the team as a collective and go there and execute our plan.

“We’ve worked on the basics, focussing on our defensive structure and at the same time having our forwards scoring the goals once again. As a team we have refocused and reshaped ourselves and we are ready to take on any challenge that comes our way.”