Johannesburg - Having relied on a penalty shootout to overcome Wits in their Telkom Knockout quarter-final, Free State Stars coach Steve Komphela said his side was lacking specialist goal-scorers.

Stars won 4-3 on penalties after a goalless encounter at Bidvest Stadium on Saturday night.

“It will always be [a concern],” Komphela said.

“We are not free-scoring and what I always tell our players when Chelsea goes out and buys [Andriy] Shevchenko, they buy [Didier] Drogba, or whoever - they are going out there to buy goal-scorers.

"Take out [Lionel] Messi from Barcelona and they won't score the same number of goals.

“Goal-scorers are special players and we are trying to manipulate the talent we have.

"We don't have the budget to go get a special player, but we're trying to improvise.”

Komphela believed winger Katlego Mashego and former Stars player Mzikayise Mashaba, who now turns out for the Students, had produced the key battle in the match, and he praised Mashego for his versatility.

“We're excited and happy that Mashego coped well at right back because we were fully aware of Mashaba," Komphela said.

“He likes pushing forward and is arrogant so we needed somebody who could withstand that pressure.

“Mashego can play right back - he's very explosive - and he can play as a winger.

"He's very intelligent and he's unbelievably deceptive, and he's more of one of those quiet leaders."

The former Bafana Bafana caretaker coach felt Mashego was perhaps the best player, in one-on-one situations, in the country.

“I doubt if there could be any defender, if we could give 10 balls and ask Mashego to go past, who would win more of those," Komphela said.

“Mashego is likely to come out tops. He's very good one-on-one.

"He's a very good crosser, a leader. He can play inside and outside the lines.”

Mamelodi Sundowns also advanced to the next round of the cup competition with a 2-0 win over AmaZulu in Umlazi.

On Friday, SuperSport United overcame Maritzburg United 2-0 at Harry Gwala Stadium, progressing to the last four.