Kaizer Chiefs head coach has revealed that he had intended to hand academy star Samkelo Zwane his league debut against Swallows.
Chiefs secured a hard-fought victory against bottom-of-the-table Swallows on Wednesday night at the Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto.
What appeared to be a done-and-dusted game at half-time thanks to goals from Caleb Bimenyimana and Keagan Dolly, turned out to be a fight to the death after Waseem Isaacs scored for Swallows in the 68th minute.
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Although Chiefs held on just long enough to win the tie, head coach Arthur Zwane has revealed that the tense end to the game prevented him from introducing Chiefs development star Samkelo Zwane, among others.
"We wanted to make changes at some point," the coach said in his post-match presser.
"But when we conceded that goal then we had to lock the game - we needed to save some of the players because we're travelling, we're going to cape town."
"So we needed [to rest] players like Njabulo [Blom]. We were planning to bring in the young Samkelo Zwane, planning to bring in Mshini [Nkosingiphile Ngcobo], we were planning to bring in maybe Bibo [Sabelo Radebe], instead of maybe bringing in Cole [Alaxander]."
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Amakhosi were also forced into a substitution when goal scorer Bimenyimana was stretched off and was replaced by defensive midfielder Cole Alexander.
"Unfortunately, we found ourselves under pressure and we had to make sure that okay, lets' bring in experience, let's lock the game up. Let's make sure that we consolidate," the 49-year-old-coach added.
"We thought we could kill the game and get a third one and we had the opportunities to kill the game off, then the give the youngsters a run.
"But we couldn't throw them in at a time when we needed to consolidate and make sure that we get maximum points."
Samkelo has been training with the Chiefs senior team for most part of this season and made a cameo appearance for the club in the Macufe Cup friendly against Royal AM.
The 20-year-old may get his chance when Amakhosi take on Stellenbosch on Sunday.