Baxter doesn’t want lucky wins, wants Chiefs to earn them

Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter says it would be nice for his team to win but he feels if it is not a win they worked for and earned, it could not be sustained. 

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He however took the ‘lucky’ draw against AmaZulu without complaint. Chiefs were gifted a penalty by referee Jelly Chavani to get an equaliser in their DStv Premiership match on Saturday afternoon. 

The ball had hit AmaZulu’s Mbongeni Gumede on the shoulder as he had clearly had his hands behind him to show he had no intention whatsoever of using them.  

Chiefs however had their own chances and they could have easily won the game had they taken them. Evidence of this is that Usuthu keeper Veli Mothwa was named Man of the Match afterward. 

“We’re used to it,” said Baxter of the missed chances missed by Chiefs. “We said at half-time we’ve got to change. Just 10% more would have a massive impact on our season. We played away against Mamelodi Sundowns, played well, dominated large periods of the game but lost.

“Today we played against a team who finished second last season. And again I thought we dominated large parts of the game where we should score. We didn’t and it looked like we could have got beat. The lads kept going, created a few chances at death. Opened ourselves to a lot of counter-attacks trying to get the point and all credit to the boys for sticking it out.

“We refused to get beaten. I think as I say a 10% improvement on the critical phases that decide the game then we can be up there. We played good football to get someone in, but you’ve got to bury the chances. We can’t open the second half as I said in the critical phase, don’t open up too much and we open ourselves massively, make a mistake and they score. 

“We can’t do that. That’s not a recipe for winning football. There’s a lot that needs to change to make it a recipe for winning football. The boys are working hard. And I hope the supporters make sure they support them in that. We need to try to make something last a long time, not just get a lucky win, and then everybody’s happy and you can have a drink at the weekend,” concluded the Chiefs coach.