CAPE TOWN – Despite a 4-2 win over Platinum Stars in Rustenburg on Thursday, and despite assuming top spot on the PSL standings again, Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler wasn’t all that happy with his team’s performance. Talk about the quest for perfection.
As it stands, City are joint top of the table with 45 points alongside Kaizer Chiefs, followed by Wits on 44 and Mamelodi Sundowns on 38.
City’s win over Platinum was again founded on their swift counter-attacking style and the fact that, in their squad, they have a number of players capable of scoring goals.
Tinkler was recently named as the Coach of the Month for March, and Thursday’s victory also allowed his team to win the PSL’s Third Quarter, which guarantees the club a R1.5million cash injection.
And Tinkler most certainly has the Midas touch at the moment. All his decisions are turning to gold. On Thursday, with both his influential central midfielders – Roland Putsche and Mpho Matsi – unavailable, the City coach gave an opportunity to Thabo Nodada who, because of injury, hasn’t seen much game time over the past year.
Nodada scored the opening goal and produced a performance that earned him the man-of-the-match award afterwards.
Also, early in the second half, with the score at 2-1 and Platinum looking to hit back, Tinkler replaced Lehlohonolo Majoro (he scored the second goal) with Judas Moseamedi – and the substitute netted the third and important goal for City soon after arriving on the field.
“I thought we were lucky to go in 2-1 at halftime,” said Tinkler. “We were technically poor, our first touch was bad. But we were a lot better in the second half when we hurt them on the transition. In the end, I guess it was a pretty comfortable win.”
Next up for City is a crunch top-of-the-table clash when they host Wits at the Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday.