Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has praised his players for responding strongly to his recent criticism after returning to winning ways.

The Buccaneers returned to winning ways following their 3-0 victory over Chippa United through goals from Ghampani Lungu, Lebone Seema and Daniel Msendami.

The win sees Pirates move up to the top of the Betway Premiership standings, with seven points after three matches.

Ouaddou has now challenged his squad to show greater consistency going forward.

“Like I told you, I think my boys gave me a great response today. You know when a father or big brother is shouting in the dressing room who knows better than me the psychology of my players,” Ouaddou told SuperSport TV after the game.

“So, people talk too much to say the coach he cannot talk like that in the media, I’m expecting an answer and sometimes you need to be a little bit hard with your boys to have this kind of performance.

“We had a difficult first half, we knew it would be difficult. But to be honest, we were not panicking because at the halftime we were just spoke calmly and we make some tactical adjustments especially our front-line in order to be between the lines and intervals and we were so calm.

“And they gave me a very good answer today, now the question mark are we going to be consistent in the future, it’s my hope.”