Orlando Pirates co-coach Mandla Ncikazi was impressed by his players’ mentality in Bucs’ 2-1 win over Sekhukhune United at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The win was the Sea Robbers’ first in the league in five games, since beating Chippa United nearly six weeks ago.
Things had not looked good for Pirates at half-time after Sekhukhune midfielder Seth Parusnath had sliced his way through the home defence to score in the 41st minute.
The Soweto side’s players however kept their cool, kept on with their passing game, and eventually, it paid dividends - much to Ncikazi’s relief.
"The subconscious mind is very bad, because when you see what has happened before, you are resorting to the default position, and we didn't want our team to go into the panic mode,” he told SuperSport TV after the game.
"And I think it helped us today. We continued to play the way we had played, and if you are possession-based and you want to use possession to create chances, don’t change now because you are falling behind.
"You need the patience and against a low block, they are waiting for one ball, make one mistake and then they punish you.
"But I think we did well, second half, in just handling their counter-attacks."
Pirates’ first goal came from a Linda Mntambo penalty after Ryan de Jongh’s arm made contact with Paseka Mako’s cross. Kabelo Dlamini bent in a sublime 20-metre finish a minute later for the winner.
The Buccaneers moved up to sixth position with the win, on 14 points. One spot back and two points adrift are Kaizer Chiefs, who Bucs meet on Saturday afternoon in the Soweto derby. Amakhosi lost 1-0 to Stellenbosch earlier on Tuesday.
"Let's move into the next match, the most important match in the PSL calendar,” Ncikazi commented. “Happy that we won today with every adversity that we faced, let's move into the next one.”
