Johannesburg - Moroka Swallows coach Zeca Marques feels experience was the telling factor in his side's MTN8 success on Saturday evening.

The Dube Birds clinched the Top-8 title for the first time since 1979 as Bennett Chenene's 86th-minute strike gave the Soweto giants a 2-1 victory over SuperSport United after Giorgi Nergadze had canceled out Franklin Cale's fourth-minute opener.

The victory also signaled Marques' first cup success as a head coach, the 51-year-old having taken over from four-time PSL title-winning tactician Gordon Igesund during the off-season.

Speaking after the encounter, a clearly jubilant Marques said: "You can't change a winning formula and you can't buy experience and this is what we got today.

"We won it because of experience. Youth is great, but it's got to be balanced.

"Today we proved that with experience we can achieve things.

"There's a vision with the club, and we know the older players won't last forever, so we're building them [the younger players] up slowly.

"We give them their moments that they deserve and there's a game-plan for them."

Many questions had been raised over whether Marques could carry on from where Igesund left off prior to his taking up the head coach's role with Bafana Bafana, and the new tactician hopes this weekend's performance can help quiet some of those critics.

"I'm on a learning curve as a head-coach but I'm not on a learning curve as a coach," Marques said.

"I've been involved for many years and it's just decision making.

"Now I've got to make the decisions, but the decisions are the same."

He added: "Sometimes as an assistant coach you have more input than a head coach, so I've learned from the mistakes of the previous coaches.

"I do a lot off TV, a lot of analysis, and it's all about decision making and at the moment I've been quite spot-on with the decision making.

"Coaching is coaching. It doesn't matter if you start today or last week, if you know what you're doing, if your qualities are there, there's no problem."