Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral was full of praise for his strikers after his team demolished Free State Stars in Rustenburg, to record their second league win of the current season over the team who went into the game sitting on third place in the standings.

The Amakhosi went into the game without having found a goal in a league game in over two months; it was 410 minutes since they had last found the back of the net in a PSL encounter.

So when Mabhudi Khenyeza turned home Itumeleng Khune’s long searching ball in the first minute of the second half the joy on the Chiefs coaches’ face was there for all to see, as he jumped up and down the touchline celebrating the goal with his assistant Fani Madida.

It was the first time this season in a league game that two strikers have found goals in the same game, which was more pleasing to the coach. In all his joy Ertugral knows that the title race is as open as ever with a number of the teams out front dropping points at will.

There is also a resurgent Sundowns and Pirates who like Chiefs seemed to have had a change in fortunes of late to contend with, and they are two teams who Chiefs will come up against before the month is out. For his team to be taken seriously as title contenders Chiefs will need to win against Swallows, Sundowns and Pirates the next three teams Ertugral and his squad will meet in the league.

Wonderful Wednesday

Things could not have gone better for Chiefs on Wednesday evening and it meant a lot for the team that the front men were amongst the goal scorers against Stars, as the coach added. “It was a real worry that we did not score in the past three league games, when your strikers come up and put up a great showing like they did against Stars you just get the feeling that things are beginning to look up for us. You need your strikers to be finding goals for you regularly in order for you to do well, both Mabhudi and Shaun’s finishing on Wednesday was out of the top draw and don’t forget about Onismor's goal he did well to round off what he had initiated”.

Lucky charm

As the coach heaped praise on his team for getting the result they were looking for, he did mention that they did get a couple of breaks in the first half and that complimented with some great finishing in the second forty five minutes saw his team home.

Ertugral adds, “something that was perhaps lacking in our previous games was luck and it must be said that I feel we rode ours in the opening half on Wednesday. We have the defenders and goalkeeper to thank for some big tackles and well made saves, which kept us in the game at half time and we were emerged the stronger team in the second half. What we do though need to do is to play consistently over the full ninety minutes; we cannot afford to play well in brief spells in any game”.

Continued success

Victory over Free State Stars is now in the past and Ertugral is looking to the immediate future as he gets his team back on the training ground on Friday in preparation for their first of two Soweto Derbies scheduled for November, when The Amakhosi face Moroka Swallows at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Wednesday evening.

Ertugral, commenting on Chiefs next three league games, had the following to add, “over the course of the month we play Swallows, Sundowns and Pirates. The chance has come for us to take valuable points off three teams who are sure to be serious title challengers, taking points from them at this stage of the campaign will definitely count in our favour later on”.