AmaZulu FC co-coach Arthur Zwane has praised the impact of former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Hendrick Ekstein who won the Man of the Match award in the last match.
Usuthu secured their first victory of the season on Tuesday night, downing Chippa United 2-0 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
This was rebound after they lost all their five opening games of the season across all competitions.
Speaking with the media after the match against the Chilli Boys, Zwane hailed the performance of Hendrick Ekstein who’s lifted the team in past two matches.
ZWANE ON EKSTEIN – ‘YOU MUST HAVE SEEN HOW IMPORTANT HE IS’
“If you look at Pule's impact from the two previous games, you must have seen how important he is,” said Zwane.
“Unfortunately, he comes from a long layoff. We needed to manage him. We don't have a player of his caliber right now.
“We're obviously trying to help the other youngsters to get to his level. In terms of penetrating, in terms of reading the game so that we can be able to have our clear identities as to now have a player like when Pule is out… they come in and give us the same energy and tactical understanding of the game.
“At one stage, we wanted to take him out because we were afraid that if something happened to him, but we were like you know what we still have enough time but you could see his energy levels were already depleted. He was already battling.
“But because of his experience as well, we said, hang in there as long as you can be able to keep the ball for us. And he managed to do that because we wanted to keep him on the foot for that.
“It was very, very important towards the end of the game, for us to keep the ball and frustrate the opposition. And he did very well.”