Kaizer Chiefs coach Cavin Johnson is relieved after beating SuperSport United 2-1 on Saturday evening in the DStv Premiership, he addressed the dressing room fight.
Amakhosi returned to their winning ways and bagged their second win in 2024 at Peter Mokaba Stadium and the coach expressed delight. Goals for Chiefs came from Christian Saile and Mduduzi Shabalala as they looked to avoid their fourth defeat in a row.
Amakhosi is headed to encounter pressure from three losses at the hands of Richards Bay, Chippa United, and Stellenbosch. Under Johnson’s guidance, Amakhosi knew they were skating on thin ice as far as their top-eight qualification hopes.
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In a post-match reaction, Johnson said they are a work in progress after their finishing bore some fruit on Saturday as they scored two well-taken goals in a 2-1 victory.
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The former Platinum Stars mentor, Johnson said he was pleased with their display as Amakhosi had managed just three goals in nine matches in all competitions heading into this match, with their chances of qualifying for next season’s MTN8 looking increasingly tricky.
The coach also revealed that his hitman, Saile practises his techniques regularly and he is happy it finally paid off. “It was a very difficult game, playing Gavin (Hunt) is always hard. We got the goals,” Johnson told SuperSport TV.
“You can see on the pitch the players are happy. They have put in a lot of hard work, now it has paid off. I thought it could have paid off in the last game and the game before that, But today was different, we got the three points and that is what we came for. He does it in training all the time. We are doing a lot of this at home, in training, today it came off, I hope it comes off the next day and the day after that.”
Meanwhile, the manager also debunked that there is beef in his dressing room, especially after their 1-0 defeat to Richards Bay last weekend.
Johnson Addresses Dressing Room Fight
Formerly under Pitso Mosimane’s wing as Al Ahly’s assistant coach, Johnson, and his men now move to the eighth spot on the log table with 33 points from 25 games.
The coach was asked if the alleged argument from the defeat in Durban inspired the fight against Matsatsantsa in Polokwane. He first clarified that he was misquoted as his players were conversing about how they didn’t capitalise on the chances they created.
“I think before I say anything according to that I think that was misquoted. We all read the papers, but I think that was a misquote from somebody who said my players are arguing. No, they’re not arguing,” Johnson told the media.
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“It’s a normal conversation that you have 95% of the game and you can’t score the goals. It’s normal for players to ask each other or to find out from me but it was quoted that we were arguing.
“I don’t think that is the right message to send to my 16 million supporters. So they were not arguing, they were talking about how we’re going to get better. And yes we went back to the drawing board. We tried it, we fixed it, not fixed it but we trained a little bit more on how they must finish.
“And today, Saile scores the goal that he scores every day at training. Other days in other games he doesn’t score the same goal. Shabba scores a goal today but in the training, we set up the drills and the one drill is specifically for technique only and today he uses the technique.
“A goal that you think is coming with power comes with technique goes pass. We are happy because at least we got two today. Last week we got zero. The week before we got zero goals but we still played good football.”
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Amakhosi will now turn their focus to the bumper clash against Mamelodi Sundowns who will visit them at the iconic FNB Stadium on Thursday, May 02.
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