Hendrick Ekstein of AmaZulu celebrates his goal during the Betway Premiership against Cape Town City at Cape Town Stadium. BackpagePix
AmaZulu co-coach Vusumuzi Vilakazi has bemoaned his side’s finishing despite a positive bounce back victory over Cape Town City.
Usuthu won their fourth game of the season and moved up to 11th in the Betway Premiership, easing off potential relegation worries.
Having moved to within two points of the top eight under the tutelage of co-coaching duo Vilakazi and Arthur Zwane, the club’s Achilles heel in recent weeks has been their failure to convert the bundles of goal scoring chances they create.
This ongoing issue has even led to the club seeking reinforcements in the January transfer market.
Against City, Pule Ekstein’s first half strike was enough to retrieve all three points for AmaZulu but Vilakazi could not help but feel his side could’ve made the result more emphatic by being brutal in front of goal.
“We had to dig deep to ensure we got maximum points but I think proper planning worked for us on the day, although it could’ve been much better had we converted all the chances that we got,” he said.
“It’s unbelievable that we created around eight chances in the 90 minutes, especially in the first half where we could’ve scored three goals but I think it was just not meant to be.
“It is something that needs our attention moving forward just to fine tune our finishing but we know some other things need more repetition for them to be in the highest order where we expect them.”
Vilakazi and his men can now look ahead to their KwaZulu-Natal Derby clash with Golden Arrows next Saturday with a more optimistic attitude.
Having afforded the club temporary relief in terms of relegation discussions in recent weeks, Vilakazi has called for calm heads as he and his group look to carve out an even better final product at the end of the season.
“Its all a work in progress because when we got here, the team at the bottom of the table and we had to work our way up and we’re still not happy about the position we are right but we’ll continue to work hard.
“We are targeting another three points in our next game, we will take all the positives and confidence from this game and take it to our game against Arrows because it's too soon for us to say we’re happy because at the end of the season, we want to see ourselves in a very decent position.
AmaZulu face an unpredictable fixture list in January with meetings with Arrows, Sekhukhune United, Magesi FC and Stellenbosch.
The Durban based club will look to take advantage of those four matches being played in their own backyard as they look to surge up the league standings in the second round.