Cape Town - Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic admitted his side were below-par in their 3-1 victory over Bloemfontein Celtic on Saturday.
The difference between the sides was that Pirates took their chances, whereas Celtic did not. Indeed, Lehlonolo Seema's side could easily have scored three or four had they not been so wasteful in front of goal.
Augustine Mulenga, Innocent Maela and Gabadinho Mhango got the goals for the Buccanneers but Sredojevic was the first to admit that it was far from a complete performance.
"It is far from the performance we are looking for but it is the first match of the season." The Pirates coach told Supersport TV.
"There are still so many critical elements that we need to correct."
Micho then revealed that it was exactly two years to the day that he first took the reins at the Sea Robbers.
"Today's exactly two years since I arrived," said the Serb tactician.
"We are starting the league and we are very happy with the victory.
"We wanted to control the game and then we conceded against the run of play from a set-piece. Going in to half-time, we tried to convince the team that we could win this.
"We looked at the first half, they had advantages on the left flank. We turned to a 4-2-3-1 and from that moment, we started taking the game to our opponents."
Sredojevic concluded by saying that he was happy with the impact of new signings and second-half substitutes Kabelo Dlamini and Gabadinho Mhango, with the latter taking his goal superbly.
"The players we brought have hit the ground running. Kabelo Dlamini and Gabadinho Mhango did well. It is the best possible start for Mhango," concluded the Bucs boss.