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De Sa: Change was needed

Cape Town - Ajax Cape Town coach Roger de Sa says he is proud of what he had achieved with the club since taking over at the helm, making particular reference to the team’s ability to counter adversity during the past two weeks.

In the days leading up to and during the Telkom Knockout match against Mpumalanga Blacks Aces on Sunday, the Urban Warriors had been under pressure to prove to themselves and the football fraternity that they had the capacity to sustain the form which was generated during the early stages of the 2014/15 season.

The team headed into the Aces match, having recorded their first defeat of the league season against the same team just one week before that. De Sa said that a paradigm shift and a change in tactics ultimately produced the desired results on the afternoon.

"After losing [1-0] in Mbombela we were concerned, obviously. We thought we had to make one or two changes and also not too many changes," said De Sa, who clearly has a winning recipe at Ajax.

"But we felt that we needed to change the way we play and we did. We tried to play with two number 10s Bantu [Mzwakali] and Keagan [Dolly] to get them into the game and I think it worked."

"We battled to play against them in Nelspruit, they kept putting us under pressure and they beat us fairly last week.

"So this time around we had to change and it was also hot. But I’m happy with the overall performance, I think the two early goals helped us. That was important because it opened them up and it was a lot easier to play."
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