Chippa United head coach Daine Klate has sought to explain his emotional reaction after beating his former club Orlando Pirates at Orlando Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Klate secured his first win as a head coach in the DStv Premiership with Tanzania international defender Abdi Banda scoring an 85th-minute header to secure all three points.
“I think we have to compliment the players, I think they were fantastic, Banda, the goal was unbelievable – the build-up to the goal for me, Aviwe in the corner there, he was clever, creating a corner out of nothing,” Klate told SuperSport TV.
“It’s fantastic attitudes from the boys, the substitutes again – like Wednesday came in and made a huge difference, we came together today and pulled together as a team and we got the result at the end of the day.”
Klate said he told the players at the break that they ‘need to run, press and mark more’ than Pirates in order to win the game and heaped praise on another former Pirates player Justice Chabalala as a ‘beast’ after they kept a clean sheet away from home.
“It was just about being more braver, we failed to push up our lines, we sat back and the ball goes forward and we have to defend again, now when we pushed the game and squeezed the game up it becomes better, we started winning second balls and we started feeding off the second balls which gave us joy,” he added.
“If a team wants to press us high and set pressing traps then don’t give them pressing traps, rather go long, route one, squeeze into one side and that’s what we did in the second half, we played a lot better in the territories and I won’t say we were conservative, we were looking to make chances from the wide areas, [get the] ball into the box.
“We know they don’t like to defend, so obviously with the ball coming into the box there in the corner gave us the most important thing which is to walk away with the three points today.”
He then explained the emotional scenes when the goal was scored and the full-time whistle: “Obviously there are small little fouls that irritate you as a coach but it’s important not to be disrespectful towards the refs, they will tell you I wasn’t disrespectful towards them, of course, it was an emotional game.
“We try our best as we can to stay calm and sometimes you’re affected because when you say something, then you actually realise I’m talking sense, but not to tell them.
“I thought it was okay, small little errors – it gets frustrating on the sides when you’re emotional and the passion is there but you know the players feed off that you know, in the end, well deserved three points for us.”
