Davids happy with Pirates fighting spirit

Orlando Pirates co-caretaker coach Fadlu Davids says his team started playing the way they want them to play after AmaZulu FC scored first in their 2-1 victory over Usuthu at the Orlando Stadium on Thursday.

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Pirates had a poor start to the game, conceding an early goal, and were forced into an early substitution after Kwanda Mngonyama picked up an injury.

But, the Soweto giants managed to fight their way back into the game, with Ghanaian striker Kwame Peprah scoring a brace once again as he did in their previous match against Sekhukhune United.

Davids lauded the fighting spirit of the club and says it is all thanks to the team being in camp since the outbreak of the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, which saw the management of the club putting the whole squad in one place.

“The start of the match, really in conjunction with Kwanda’s injury, not being able to make the defensive actions and consequently going 1-0 down. Yes, we had to take him off  and bring on Mabaso, who had a fantastic game and stabilised us that side. Once we went a goal behind that was the Orlando Pirates we wanted to see… dominating the ball, building up, being able to create chances. One (goal) at half-time break could have been more. But that was a really good reaction from the team after knowing how many games we played in a short period of time without rotating the squad much,” said Davids.

“And in the second half, good in terms of being happy for Peprah with his movement, focal point creating moments for us. We should have killed off the game with a Terrence Dzvukamanja chance to make it three and Fortune Makaringe chance maybe to make it four. But they had moments where fatigue was creeping in. But that spirit (of) togetherness that we have developed over the Covid-19 period (really helped us to hold to our lead). Big thank you to the management, since Covid took over we have been in the bubble.”

The victory meant that Pirates will go into the December break in second spot with 30 points after 19 games.