Baxter pleased with win but not performance

Goals from Matthew Rusike and substitute Bernard Parker gave Amakhosi the three points to ensure that they stay on top of the log going into the new year.

CLICK HERE for the match report.

However, Baxter was not pleased with the performance as he believes they could have done better.

“It wasn’t a very pretty game from anybody’s angle,” he said after the match.

“We have a lot of things to work on; I don’t know the reason why we were so poor with the ball tonight. We have talented players, is it mental or is it because of the Afcon coming up and if this is the last game I don’t know?... I will have a look at that in the debriefing but we can play a lot better,” he added.

Baxter was also not pleased with the decision that referee Thabo Nkosi took after he denied them a penalty after Rusike was fouled in the box, but says that he can’t criticize the referee with the way his side played.

“I’m glad we got three points from the game. But we should have gone out on a bigger high. We missed two or three big chances. The referee (Thabo Nkosi) also missed a big penalty. But my players played so poorly at times I can’t really criticize the referee for making a couple of mistakes,” he said.

AmaZulu coach Craig Rosslee was pleased with the way his side played but was disappointed that they conceded silly goals to give away the match.

“I thought we were doing a good job in the first 35 minutes, I thought we controlled the game. We put them in the areas where I wanted them to go.

“They gave the ball away and we really didn’t punish them, we got some good momentum going and unfortunately we then gave away a silly goal,” said Rosslee.

“We can’t play poorly at the back like that. And we were ok for most of the game but once again a mistake by one of our boys cost us, unfortunately we have to learn from that. But we were still in the game and I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves, I think we played some good football and that’s key for me.

“But it’s promising, I mean to come here against Chiefs and play well and to actually try to play our own game I thought it was great.

“We can now go back home and have a break and regroup and see if we can sign one or two players. We have 14 games to go, we will make a real go of it,” he added.