Nasreddine Nabi highlights strong mentality in a comeback win against Stellies

Last night, the team came back from a goal down to beat Stellenbosch 2-1 in a Betway Premiership match played at FNB Stadium.

Stellies took the lead in the 20th minute through Khomotjo Lekoloane, but Wandile Duba responded with a brace to set up Amakhosi for their fifth win of the season.

Nabi says it was emotionally and physically draining, as the players felt the hard running from the previous game against Cape Town City.

"First of all, I'd like to congratulate the players that have shown a lot of character against a very good team of Stellenbosch. It wasn't easy to come back from goal down and to win the game,” Nabi said.

“The quality of play on ourselves was not consistently good but there were times that we were better than the others but the most important thing was the mentality because even the bodies were very tired coming from the travel and the game against Cape Town that left a lot of pain and fatigue.

“Even in halftime, a couple of players were asking to be subbed off but at the end, everybody fought for the badge and the club, it's very good to have the three points and we feel and think that today we deserved them."

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Nabi made an early double substitution, pulling out Bradley Cross for Tebogo Potsane and bringing in Mfundo Vilakazi for the injured Ashley du Preez.

The subs were prepared shortly before the equalizer, and he explains the tactical substitution of Cross.

"Tactically, we feel that the first five we didn't enter the game well after the opportunity that we missed. We felt that there was a little bit of issues in how we were defending and how we were attacking that's why we wanted to make the tactical change very quickly,” he added.

“But unfortunately, they scored a goal on us when we were going to make the tactical change but after that, we made a tactical change by taking off one of the defenders and putting a winger. To give more control to the team, we felt after that the team was more balanced."