AmaZulu Head Coach Benni McCarthy has heaped praise on his team following their dramatic win over Stellenbosch on Friday.
The three points extended Usuthu’s winning run to six and moved them to second in the PSL table.
AmaZulu have now collected four 1-0 wins in their last five games and are starting to shape up as the hidden PSL ace in a little less than four months under the former Cape Town City coach.
McCarthy believes the resilience of his players has been the deciding factor in winning games.
“I think our travels to Thohoyandou in three days back in Durban, and then travelling to Cape Town didn’t help our recovery process, and you could see,” said McCarthy.
“In the first half, we were decent. We were okay. I thought we had opportunities where we could’ve gotten one or two in there, but we didn’t.
“Then in the second half, Stellenbosch came out where they made a game of it. I really think if they had taken the opportunities they could have probably walked away with the three points because they had glorious chances to score, but lady luck was on our side.
“Now we go six games, and a six clean sheet for Velile. That is amazing. The resilience of the team is amazing because we never give up. We knew it wasn’t our best moment in the second half because Stellenbosch were making it really difficult for us.”
Substitute Thabo ‘Section 10’ Qalinge scored the sole goal deep into stoppage time. The attacking midfielder joined AmaZulu last week after spending several months as a free agent.
And McCarthy is understandably delighted.
“We made positive changes and I am very pleased with Section-10. He looked lively, he looks like the player who can give us the extra edge.
“That is exactly what he showed today, composure with the opportunity to score the winning goal for us today and give us all three points.
“I can only be proud of the players for their effort, for their hard work, for their dedication. I am a very proud coach, even though it wasn’t our best game, but sometimes you don’t have to play the best football to win matches, and three points is important.”