Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane praised the performance of Lebohang Maboe after their 3-0 victory over Black Leopards on Wednesday.
Maboe did not have the best of starts to the game against Leopards as he missed a number of chances and became a target for the supporters.
However, the former Maritzburg United player shrugged off the negative vibes coming his way and opened the scoring five minutes before half-time and his coach was pleased he stuck with it.
In the post-match interview, Mosimane told SuperSport TV: "He's young, he's coming to a team that has to win at all costs. You have to give him space, I'm so happy he scored. He needed that break.
"He works hard and he's the one who hasn't been scoring for the last three or four games. He got his goal, he has been working. I told him you going to get it. I'm so happy I stayed with him.
"It was easy to take him off and bring on [Emiliano] Tade because he did not play well last week. But he works hard so he got his goal, perseverance. I'm so happy for him, it's unbelievable."
Sundowns killed off the game after the interval with Khomotso Masia putting the ball into his own net and Ricardo Nascimento converting a penalty late on.
The victory made sure Sundowns bounced back after suffering two losses on the domestic circuit - a Nedbank Cup defeat to Chippa United and then going down 2-0 against Amazulu in their last league encounter.
Mosimane though was never worried and said the problem, as always, was that his team were not converting their chances.
The Sundowns mentor continued: "As long as we create chances to score, the goals will come.
"The problem is when you have a team that doesn't create chances, because then there’s something wrong. But at this point in time we're happy.
"Sundowns miss all the time, we know that. Even Orlando Pirates create so many chances and they miss. It's a conversation rate we have in South Africa.
"We scored three [goals] today and we got three [goals] three days back. You can't complain all the time."