Coach Stuart Baxter had called upon his troops to respond to the disappointment of last Tuesday wthe Amakhosi took on Bidvest Wits on Saturday, 9 November 2013, at the FNB Stadium. Indeed, Baxter’s lads responded accordingly by a 2 – 1 win over the tricky Wits. Baxter reflected on the game after the victory:

“We created good chances at the beginning of the game. We thought after creating the three good chances in the first half we would count ourselves unlucky not to be leading at the break. We came into the second half and scored a good goal in the 48th minute. We then switched off for about 30min and probably that’s the longest time we have done that. Luckily our backline, especially the centre halves did very well when Wits took control of the game. I thought that after scoring, we would enjoy to be in charge. We were sloppy and when we received the ball we went straight back with the ball. We created dangerous situations for ourselves. We allowed Wits to get back in the game.

We realised that we needed to make a change. We brought in Lehlohonolo Majoro and George Lebese for Kingston Nkhatha and Siyabonga Nkosi. After two to three touches, Majoro looked like he was not on song. Our Goal came out of the blue. The 30min of the match when we switched off left a lot to be desired. I am sure Gavin Hunt will be lamenting the fact that they’re not going home with anything.”

On the inconsistent play as demonstrated recently by his Team;

“The players have asked me why do we get so sloppy? Why do we make it so difficult for ourselves? We switch off and that has a ripple effect in that we end up not shifting the ball quickly and our shape fragments. As I said, today was the longest we have had that. There is no patent for that and it is not something that you can buy in the bottle. The players must take the responsibility. I don’t like shifting the blame and that’s not what I am going to do. What I mean is that the players must take responsibility especially if they know what they are capable of. If the players put their front foot we can really play good football.”

On Chiefs defending their Championship;

“There’s still a lot of football still to be played. This is not a sprint. The inconsistency is probably felt by everyone in the league. If we are there and there about when the league settles, yes, we have a chance to defend our Championship. We played Moroka Swallows last season at FNB and defeated them in referee’s optional time with a set play, this year they came to FNB and we drew. We beat TUKS for the first time this season. We went to Ajax last week and lost, last season we lost in Cape Town and still we won the league. The only real result that is different from last season is losing to SuperSport United. There is no enormous swing in the results compared to last season.”

Chiefs have been on the receiving end of the boo brigade;

“I was delighted with the supporters after Kingston missed a sitter in the 29th minute, the supporters applauded him. I thought that’s when the boo-boys would come out again. I turned around and applauded the supporters. The crowd helped us tonight. The supporters realised that if I leave out Kingston because of booing and select someone else, I will create a precedence going forward. I hope is a lesson they learned that booing Nkhatha makes it difficult to select Majoro. I was delighted with the crowd.”

On Morgan Gould punching of a Wits player;

“I didn’t see it. I will see it on tape and if it is something that the Club doesn’t allow and perhaps also something that could have cost us a game, definitely we will act on that.”

The Amakhosi remain on position 6 after playing 9 games in the Absa Premiership.

Kaizer Chiefs (0) 2 (Nkhata 48’ Josephs [og] 85’) Bidvest Wits (0) 1 (Chapman 66’)

Kaizer Chiefs: Khune; Gaxa, Gould, Mashamaite, Masilela, Katsande, Letsholonyane, Tshabalala (Mathoho 90+4’), Nkosi (Lebese 79’), Parker, Nkhatha (Majoro 79’)