“Shabba should be complimented,” reacts Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach Doctor Khumalo about Siphiwe Tshabalala’s brilliant free-kick goal against Tuks on Tuesday evening. “Championships can be decided by dead-ball situations. That’s part and parcel of the game and that’s how we won against Tuks.”

Amakhosi beat the University of Pretoria 1-0 thanks to Tshabalala’s match winner. Chiefs are on top of the Absa Premiership log with 60 points from 26 games.

Khumalo was in charge on the bench, as coach Stuart Baxter sat out the last of his two-game suspension.

“We didn’t play well in the first half,” Amakhosi’s soccer legend reflected afterwards. “This had partly to do with the small pitch at Tuks Stadium, which doesn’t suit our style of play. Besides that, we haven’t played on such a field for a while.”

On the other hand, Tuks competed hard for every metre on the field, particularly in the first half. “They did well from a tactical point of view,” admits Khumalo. “It’s not easy to break down their defence.”

The Tuks clash was the third league encounter in a row that Katlego Mphela, who was out long with injury during the first half of the season, started as the striker.

“Mphela showed us why we got him at Chiefs,” Khumalo says. “We need him especially in these types of games. He has been doing well and, in particular, in his first league start against Moroka Swallows, when Mphela was my man-of-the-match.”

Khumalo doesn’t want to talk about the league title. “Our last game is on May 9,” he reacts. “Until then we need to do the job.”

However, he does stress that things are different from last season.

“It’s like a soap,” Khumalo says with a smile on his face, referring to television. “Some people mentioned that they had seen this league soap before. But in a soapie characters change and that’s what we did at Chiefs as well. That’s also why people stay glued to soapies, nothing stays the same and the outcomes are always different.”

Chiefs’ next Absa Premiership match is against Polokwane City at home at the FNB Stadium on Wednesday, 22 April (kick-off at 19:30).