Chippa United coach Eric Tinkler was delighted with his team finally breaking the duck by claiming all the three points in their clash against Baroka FC.
This, when Chippa scrapped through with a 1-0 win at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane on Saturday.
The victory has now shot Chippa up to the 14th position.
The game was Tinkler’s second at the helm and he could not stop singing praises of his charges.
“In the first half there were three to four great chances and I felt we were a little bit hard done by to come in at half time 0-0.
“But we told the players to keep on going and keep the structure, keep the organisation and also the belief that if we keep pushing and pushing we’ll eventually get a goal.
“Because the legs have to go -– they will tire, and we need to capitalise on their mistakes and fortunately that happened,” said Tinkler.
“The goal comes from a mistake and obviously I’m very happy with the performance of the team.”
Tinkler said Freddie Nsabiyumva was unbelievable defensively as he gelled well with the entire back four.
“I said the defence has been our frailty and thought that him [Nsabiyumva] and Thabo [Nthethe] did extremely well.
“We asked Zitha [Macheke] and [Tebogo] Thlolane to do a difficult job today ... to be the ones giving us the width and looking to get high, especially on the transition but they needed to remember their prime function which is defence.
“So I was very happy with the back four in particular, and having Tercious Malepe whom I think was man of the match.
“And I thought he had a fantastic performance helping us both defensively and offensively.”
Tinkler said he was also delighted with the way experienced players such as Mark Mayambela and Daine Klate caused problems for Bakgaga.
“Kurt Lentjies and the others in the front four were combining very well – creating the opportunities to score .
“Going forward now we only needed to repeat everything that we have been doing and make sure we continue to be solid defensively.
“The more clean sheets, the better. Offensively we need to continue making those chances and that’s about converting chances. Hopefully we’ve turned that corner of being unlucky and hopefully things will change.”
Tinkler said he was concerned about his number one goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi, who only returned from Nigeria on Wednesday and had his first training session with the team on Thursday.
“Obviously there was the worry that Daniel would pick up an injury in Nigeria, but I was not worried about him when arrived.”..