Johannesburg - Orlando Pirates coach Eric Tinkler felt Lady Luck smiled on the Buccaneers in their 1-0 victory over Celtic at the weekend while Gavin Hunt kept Pietermaritzburg's heart surgeons on standby in their last gasp victory against Maritzburg United last Wednesday.
Those were just some of the feelings of PSL coaches after another week of action.
Said Tinkler: “I think Celtic dominated the first 45 minutes; second-half we made a slight improvement, but still we obviously got a bit lucky with the goal. But it was still a good free-kick by Makola. They came at us, but we managed to hold on.”
Bidvest Wits coach Hunt was anxious throughout the tightly contested match against Maritzburg: “I almost had a heart-attack - I feel about 10 years older. Teams have done it to us this year as well, but sometimes the soccer gods repay you a little bit. I thought we worked hard.
“They came at us second half, for sure, but I thought we controlled the first half. Daine [Klate] missed a tap-in before we scored and we missed two other chances, and then obviously James [Keene] at the end.”
Meanwhile Sundowns' Pitso Mosimane, whose team head the leagues, said it is more important to focus on Sundowns and not the other teams.
“We need to drive our own vehicle. When we look at other people, we will lose focus. When you have accumulated enough points, you can afford hiccups. The games are getting fewer, not getting many, they are getting fewer. We need to maintain the points difference we have. I think the next games will tell the story.”
Polokwane City goalkeeper George Chigova was proud of his team's performance against Kaizer Chiefs last Tuesday: “I want to give all the credit to all my team-mates; we deserved this man of the match award together and not only me. We went to the FNB stadium and fought as a team and we managed to walk away with something. We have been failing to collect points away from home this season; we only had one win and a draw prior to the Chiefs game. We sat down amongst ourselves and said to each other that this is the right time to fight. We need to collect points because it's much harder to do that in the second round.”
Chiefs coach Steve Komphela continues to be impressed by Daniel Cardoso:
“Having Cardoso, who can play anywhere - left-back, right-back or centre-back - gives us comfort in defence. If we had a normal full-back you would be less comfortable at times switching to three centre-backs.
“All of them can cover the width in defence and challenge in the air. Cardoso can also use the ball. He played much better in Cape Town. But there is also mileage on the legs. Confidence comes and then you play better.” - African News Agency (ANA)