The Chilli Boys continued their trajectory since Kopo and Thabo September took over and are now working to consolidate their Top 8 spot.

Kopo adds that his charges dealt well with an aggressive approach in the early stages of the DStv Premiership clash.

"Very very tough game, I think I said it before the game started that SuperSport is a wounded team that is trying by all means to win. A very good team, very competitive team and we knew that on their day we're gonna be under a lot of pressure so we expected the onslaught that came but you know we survived the first 15 minutes where they broke a couple of times but after that, I felt we settled a little bit better into the game and then they began to make mistakes at the back which we took complete advantage of to score the goal," Kopo said.

READ: Mamelodi Sundowns coach picks out positives in Esperance defeat

Chippa broke the deadlock through defender Sinoxolo Kwayiba, with striker Eva Nga adding a second late in the second half.

Kopo was impressed with how his team dealt with the pressure from SuperSport to try get back into the game.

"Once we go 1-0 in the lead, we knew that the pressure is gonna come more in the second half but at the same time we knew that the opportunity to catch them on the counter becomes stronger so the priority was always to deal with the long ball, the direct ball that's coming to Bradley [Grobler] which I felt for most of the game we dealt with it very well and then in the second half, SuperSport changed and started going wild and bringing in crosses which gave us problems but then we changed to play with five at the back and let our wingbacks deal with Lungu [Gamphani] and on the left hand side Baliti [Aphiwe] to deal with those two and stop the crosses," he added.

With six league games to go, Kopo wanted Chippa to keep pulling away from the relegation zone.

"We were desperate for three points, Chippa is a team that normally at this time of the season, we're down there fighting for relegation, trying to survive. So, the mandate has been clear with the players that at the moment we're not looking at beauty, we're looking at the points and it's gonna look ugly many times but we've got to get those points in the bag and then we can build.

"You cannot build when you're suffocating down there, you can only build when you've got an opportunity to breathe and I think the result today, gives us an opportunity to build."

Teams	M	W	L	PTS	NET RR
United Arab Emirates	5	4	1	8	0.763
Kuwait	5	3	2	6	0.525
Saudi Arabia	5	3	2	6	-0.166
Oman	5	2	3	4	-0.019
Bahrain	5	2	3	4	-0.098
Qatar	5	1	4	0	-1.039

Finished Gulf Cricket T20I Championship