John Maduka: Andile Mpisane also needed to start at some stage

This was the first time Mpisane, who is the son of club owner and president Shauwn Mkhize and doubles as chairman, started a game in top-flight football, with this being his second appearance this season. 

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Usuthu wrapped the match up inside the first 32 minutes, before the 22-year-old was substituted put at halftime, with Maduka defending that Mpisane – like any other player in the squad – also needs opportunities to start matches.

"The chairman deserves, you know, to play and to start a game. There are many times when it's always difficult, but he had a chance to play and we have to also give him chance to play," said Maduka.

Royal AM played much better in the second half after Sibusiso Magaqa had filled the central midfield role in which Mpisane was operating. 

This was an area AmaZulu exploited in the first half as the chairman couldn’t keep up with the pace of the game and lost a lot of ball possession. 

However, Maduka insists they didn't change the way they played but it was rather a case of the players that came in were more experienced in handling the conditions.

"As much as we made those changes, it's not like we changed how we play, we still stuck to our structure and the way we played," he defended.

"The players we introduced, yes, they came right, they are people that had been playing before, so it was easy for them to also adapt to the game and the situation on the field of play.

"So we can't say we got it wrong [with the starting line-up] – if you look at the goals, and analyse the game well, the goals we conceded were mistakes, and in professional football, teams wait for you to make mistakes and then punish you.

"And if you make mistakes in a crucial area, you've got no chance – and that's exactly what happened. As much as they scored [three] goals, I think we made things easier for them."

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