Cape Town - Black Leopards coach Cavin Johnson has suggested that Kaizer Chiefs were looking to win free-kicks in their 1-1 draw at Thohoyandou Stadium on Saturday.
Chiefs have adopted a very direct style of play this season and have scored an unprecedented number of goals from set-pieces.
And so it came as no surprise when Samir Nurkovic opened the scoring with a header from a Lebogang Manyama delivery.
The Amakhosi have come under scrutiny from footballing purists for their route-one style of football, which has been perceived as 'negative' and a un-South African way of playing the game.
Lidoda Duvha coach Johnson referred to the simplicity of Chiefs' game-plan, while seeming to suggest that they try and win free-kicks in the final third as much as possible.
"So ja [against Chiefs] we went 10 minutes extra before conceding but not what we expected because Kaizer Chiefs have been very strong on their set-pieces throughout the season and we dealt with that very, very well as a team that's struggling," Johnson told KickOff.
"And that's all they did for us, just throw the ball in the front, trying to get a set-piece, organise their big guys to sort of head the ball into the net."
Despite being on the back foot for the majority of the game, Johnson still feels his side should have come away with the three points due to having created the better chances.
"Ja it turns the corner for Black Leopards but at the same time maybe we could have stole the game, I don't know, because I thought we played a lot better," he said after the match.
"We could have stolen it in the last 20 minutes. We had two or three very, very good chances in the first half as well but for us it's about turning the corner.
"You know we've been playing good football the last three games. I thought we played good football against Highlands Park, against Chippa [United] and against Bloemfontein Celtic. But we conceded goals in the first five minutes of all the games."
- TeamTalk Media