Jose Riveiro singles out Bandile Shandu and Relebohile Mofokeng in Soweto Derby win

The duo were called into action unexpectedly when teammates Thabiso Monyane and Kermit Erasmus both suffered injuries that forced Riveiro to think on his feet around the 15-minute mark of the Soweto Derby.

Shandu set up forward Evidence Makgopa for the only goal of the clash and Riveiro highlighted the impact.

"A couple of accidents sadly in the game, we had to do two subs. I have to highlight the way that Shandu and Rele came to the field. Straight from the bench, almost without time to prepare themselves for a game like this. They showed something that is special," Riveiro said.

Riveiro did point to the fixture congestion as possibly the reason why the Buccaneers dropped their tempo in the second half – allowing Chiefs to ask questions of their back four.

"It was a bit ugly in terms of football show but a lot of passion. We were a bit conservative in the end but we were also a bit tired. It's our game number seven in 22 days. Credit to the guys. We have only one spot to use in the second half and understanding that we cannot do only one sub, we need legs," he explained.

With Shandu’s cross for Makgopa to score with a tap in coming from where left back Edmilson Dove was operating for Chiefs, the Pirates coach was quizzed on whether this was a tactical ploy.

"We tried to overload that area to have a player ready to collect behind Dove. We expect him to play in the right to be honest, in the end he started in the left but we continued with the same plan. Making different decisions depending on the balance of the use of Maart [Yusuf] or Castillo [Edson], whoever is there, close to Mthethwa[Sibongiseni]."

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