The North-West University (NWU) Soccer Institute opened its ABC Motsepe League National Playoffs campaign with a goalless draw against Mpumalanga champions Luthuli Brigades at Mthatha Stadium in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday, leaving coach Nkululeko Malgas confident that his side remains on course for promotion.

The national playoffs, hosted in Mthatha, bring together provincial champions from across South Africa to compete for promotion to the Motsepe Foundation Championship, the second-tier professional league in the country. The NWU entered the tournament as the North West champions, after a strong domestic campaign that saw them emerge as one of the most prolific attacking teams in the province.

Despite dominating large periods of the contest and creating several scoring opportunities, the NWU could not find a breakthrough against a resilient Luthuli Brigades side.

Malgas said his team's performance largely unfolded as expected.

“They responded well to how we expected them to come – it made it easy for us to respond. If you look at how we did this season, we were the highest-scoring team in the entire North-West ABC Motsepe League. I think we just did not have luck – we needed it and ended up being desperate,” he said.

While the missed opportunities prevented the NWU from claiming maximum points, Malgas drew positives from the team's defensive display.

“Getting a clean sheet is huge,” he said.

However, the coach believes there is still room for improvement, particularly in attacking situations and set-piece execution.

“We need to capitalise on a number of set-plays we get in a game. We were awarded six corners, but we were not composed enough in execution and we did not vary enough in our attacks.”

The result leaves qualification from the group stage finely balanced, making the next fixture crucial in the pursuit by the NWU of a long-awaited return to professional football.

Malgas said the team remains motivated by the support it has received from the university throughout the campaign.

“The support we are getting from the university is massive, as the university also afforded our boys a chance to write their mid-year exams online while they were here. We need to pay back the trust they have in us by getting the long-overdue promotion.”

The playoffs continue in Mthatha this week, with provincial champions from across South Africa battling for limited promotion places. The NWU will now shift its focus to the next group-stage encounter, knowing that a victory could significantly strengthen its chances of advancing deeper into the competition.

For a team that spent much of the season finding the back of the net, the challenge now is not creating chances, but turning them into the goals that could secure promotion and write another chapter in the history of the NWU Soccer Institute.