Thabang Monare couldn’t have asked for a better debut than helping his new club Orlando Pirates beat Kaizer Chiefs 3-0 in an MTN8 first-leg semi-final encounter.
Monare joined the Sea Robbers in the off-season after his former team, Bidvest Wits sold their top-flight franchise to Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM).
Monare struggled with a knee injury towards the end of his time at Wits and has gradually been making his way back to full fitness.
Indeed even ahead of last weekend’s Soweto Derby in Orlando, Bucs head coach Josef Zinnbauer had revealed the midfield playmaker was not ready for a full 90 minutes.
That proved the case as Monare came off after 70 minutes against Chiefs. By then though, with Pirates already 2-0 up, his job had been done.
It was certainly a composed, classy performance from Monare, who showed the importance of having a cool head shielding the defence and making play from a deep-lying central midfield position.
Zinnbauer was very pleased with what the former Clever Boys player brought to the Bucs engine room.
“You see the experience that Monare has. Monare was very calm on the ball, he [gave] options, he quietened the game, which was important,” the German told SuperSport TV after the match.
Commenting on his debut as quoted by the Pirates website, the 31-year-old Monare was happy with his contribution although he has promised there is still more to come.
“It feels good to be off the mark for my new club but more importantly, it’s great to get the win,” he said.
“I haven’t played competitive football in a while so obviously my match fitness for the competitive games is not where I want it but it’s getting there.
“We are happy with the result on Saturday and I want to give credit to my teammates for making my debut a dream start, but we are well aware of the fact that the tie isn’t over yet, which is why we are not going to get ahead of ourselves.”