Mngqithi: Mamelodi Sundown beat Orlando Pirates because of Onyango's saves

Mamelodi Sundowns co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has praised goalkeeper Denis Onyango for his display that helped the team beat Orlando Pirates 2-0 in a Premier Soccer League match on Saturday.

The league champions needed two second-half goals from Peter Shalulile in the 54th and 72nd minutes respectively to sink their rivals at Orlando Stadium.

Speaking after the game, Mngqithi has revealed how the former Uganda Cranes goalkeeper kept them in the game.

'Give credit to Denis'

"And also one must also give credit to Denis, maybe that's why he is Africa's number one because he also kept us in the game," Mngqithi told the media as quoted by idiskitimes.

"He made some sterling saves, and those saves now look like we had the game in our hands, but the truth of the matter is if he did not make those saves the game could have turned differently."

"And well done to him, and well done to the coaching staff for the profiling and the analysis, and everybody else around the team, to make sure that we profile the team, we give the detail that is necessary for the match to the players, and when results like this come we must not be arrogant, we must keep on going and dig deeper to make sure that we sustain these performances."

'The rainy days are still coming'

On the team's start to the season, Mngqithi said: "Last season we also got 13 points in this cycle, which is always very important, we dropped two points to be honest against Chippa, but we know the rainy days are still coming.

"The second round, and when the Champions League is there, when games are packed back to back, it's gonna be a little bit difficult so it's important for us to already put our strategies across to make sure that we achieve the desired targets within the first cycles that we have.

"And one is hoping that, because we are likely to play between 19 and 20 games before the Christmas break, that should give us a little bit of a chance to go to the Champions League knowing we have collected enough points, but it's never really going to be easy.

"That's why we take each game as it comes."

The Brazilians will next face Golden Arrows in the return leg of the MTN8 on September 28 before they return to league action against Moroka Swallows on October 3 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.