Orlando Pirates’ continued progress up the Betway Premiership table brought a smile to coach Abdeslam Ouaddou’s face as they romped to an easy 3-0 win away over bottom placed Chippa United at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Sunday.
Pirates moved up from ninth spot to fifth as they won a third successive league game after calamitously losing their first two outings of the Betway Premiership campaign.
“I think we achieved the performance that we wanted to achieve. It was very important for us to come here today and to take all three points,” said the Buccaneers coach.
Pirates win big as Gallants and Polokwane City share the spoils ⚽👇#SSDiski | #BetwayPrem pic.twitter.com/NaVUbxeKL3
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“Before the game, I said that it was a game of not three points, but six points, especially after Saturday’s results,” he added of wins for Kaizer Chiefs, Mamelodi Sundowns and early season frontrunners Sekhukhune United.
“We want to be very close and to reach the top of the table, and so it was very important (to win).
“Our target was to score early because it was a game that we had to take confidence and trust into, and it's what we did.
“The boys did a fantastic job in terms of possession, playing forward, in terms of finding the space in deep, in terms of finding our players in between the lines. They have respected the game plan and tactically it was a good achievement from the boys.”
But Ouaddou felt Pirates, whose next outing is the MTN8 final on September 13, let a chance slip for more goals when they took their foot off the pedal in the second half.
“I want to be pragmatic. There are some games that you have to kill off. You have to score four or five goals, because all these goals could be very important at the end of the season.
“But let's be happy for the boys. I'm proud of them,” the Moroccan-born coach added.