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A first point of the DStv Premiership season and a clean sheet left coach Kaitano Tembo with a smile on his face despite the fact Richards Bay’s long winless streak was stretched further to 18 matches and is about to go into a ninth month.
After losing their opening two matches of the season, Richards Bay held AmaZulu to a goalless draw in Saturday’s provincial derby at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
“It was always going be a difficult game against a well-drilled AmaZulu because they’re organised in possession as well as out of possession,” said Tembo, who took over at the start of the season.
“We really needed to dig deep. I thought we started very well; our shape tactically I think we were well organised. We knew that we’re going to have moments in this game but we needed to make the right decisions especially in the final third. I thought that our final ball let us down, we caught them on transition several times but we couldn’t just make the right pass. That was a huge letdown.”
But Tembo was still positive about the outcome, which marked a first point of the new campaign for the side who finished 13th last season.
“Credit to the guys that I thought came here with better fighting and mentality. We stuck our game plan and we’ve managed to get a point but with the little bit of luck probably we could have got all three points. But it was a fair game,” he added.
Richards Bay now have little time for recovery before hosting champions Mamelodi Sundowns at Umlazi on Wednesday.
“We can see that we are a little bit blunt, you know, especially in terms of scoring goals. The first two games we played, we conceded four goals and scored one goal. So it was a start that against AmaZulu we managed to have a clean sheet,” Tembo added.
“But we need to keep working a little bit more in terms of scoring goals. Probably we need someone to come in and help us in that regard. We need someone who’ll put goals in. We’ve got a lot of creative players but we need a little bit more composure in and around the box.” – SuperSport
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter