Cape Town - AmaZulu assistant coach Wilfred Mugeyi says his players deserved every ounce of credit that they got after their Telkom Knockout win against Bloemfontein Celtic at the weekend.
Read: Rosslee benched by AmaZulu
What impressed Mugeyi the most during the dramatic fixture was that his players never stopped believing in themselves, despite being two goals down with under ten minutes left of regulation time, eventually winning the clash 3-2.
While Marc van Heerden and Khulekani Madondo were the heroes, primarily because they kept Usuthu in the contest on Saturday evening, Mugeyi said it needed to be acknowledged that it was the entire team effort which helped the club emerge unscathed.
"It was great character from the players, coming back from 2-0 down to win the game was fantastic," Mugeyi told the club’s website.
AmaZulu have had an inauspicious start to their league campaign this season and as a result the club’s coach, Craig Rosslee, has come under intense scrutiny during his tenure at the helm and was excluded from the proceedings at the Princess Magogo Stadium at the weekend.
Mugeyi thinks this Telkom Knockout win will help restore some confidence at the club and perhaps even help revive what has been a catastrophic season.
"It was a good victory for everyone associated with AmaZulu. We needed this victory just to give the boys the confidence, especially going into our next league game," added Mugeyi.
Mugeyi felt that the key factors for his team during the match against Celtic were ball retention and attacking intent but more than anything else he thinks that the players now understand the importance of achieving balance across all facets of the game.
"We were playing well in the first half and we kept possession. We had eight, ten, fifteen passes so we got carried away and we forgot about defending," he said.
"When they got the ball they hit us on the counter attacks. When we were on attack, instead of picking up the strikers we let them loose, and the moment they won the ball they looked for those strikers.
"When we were 2-0 down I changed the formation and we went with the 3-5-2. I took out Willem (Mwedihanga) and played three at the back because I wanted to put more numbers in the midfield. From then, I think we were in control of the game."
AmaZulu will face PSL champions, Mamelodi Sundowns in the quarter-final.