Richards Bay coach lauds game-plan in shock victory over Kaizer Chiefs

Simo Dladla says his side stuck to their pre-match plans in their shock 2-1 Nedbank Cup Last 32 victory over Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday as the Richards Bay coach admitted some of his players were playing against their idols.

A late goal from Siyabonga Vilane gave the KwaZulu-Natal side a surprise victory against 10-man Chiefs, who had Siphosakhe Ntiya-Ntiya sent off after 64 minutes but still created more than enough chances to win the game.

"It was a tough game but we had a plan coming here. We stuck to the plan. Lucky for us, we came here in a good run of form over the previous games so we said nothing changes," Dladla said.

"We said when we have the ball we need to play our normal game, our normal passing game. When we don't have the ball then we must work hard, get behind the ball, which we did very well.

"I told them not many people can think, especially when you are compact. And that proved to work for us. We forced them into thinking hard and then they were forced to go wide because I got two tall centre-halves who can compete with Nurkovic and them. They played well.”

Dladla reveals for some of his players it was a daunting task facing Chiefs.

"Of course, Chiefs is a big team. And for some of these guys Chiefs players are their idols so they were idolising them at times.

"We had moments where we could really get behind them. We didn't. And I think that got them back into it because with the structure I thought we were ahead of them.

"Let me just say it's clear we need support, moral support, spiritual support. Maybe it helped us today that the Amakhosi fans were not here. I think we benefited from that today."