Pirates can only get better – Micho

Sredojovic marked his return into the Absa Premiership as the Buccaneers head coach with a 1-0 victory over Chippa United courtesy of a Thamsanqa Gabuza header in the first half at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

“We are lacking in self-confidence individually and as a team. We came into this game to win. I’m happy with the confidence and dedication of the players, but we need to be critical. There are still many things we still need to improve on,” said the Pirates mentor.

“But confidence only comes when you are winning. It was a very good goal straight from the training ground.”

READ: Pirates get off to a winning start

The Serb started the game with four new faces in the Bucs starting line-up, opting to start with Wayne Sandilands in goal, Innocent Maela at leftback and Musa Nyatama and Thamsanqa Sangweni in midfield.

Sredojovic was content with his whole squad, but made a special mention of Maela.

“I’m really happy with Maela to make the assist in his first game in the PSL for the goal that Gabuza scored.”

After being named Man-of-the-Match after the game on his official debut, Maela revealed that he didn’t have a good start to the game.

“I was nervous in the first 15 minutes, but the guys told me to calm down, relax and play my game. I’m happy that when you work hard you get rewarded. But all the credit must go to the whole team, we worked hard. We have a new coach and had to implement his ideas. We got three points, we are happy and now we move on,” said Maela.

“When you play with quality players they make things easy for you. They always give you options.”

Next in the Buccaneers’ league schedule is an away trip to Polokwane for a meeting with Baroka FC at the Peter Mokaba Stadium tomorrow.

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