Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou admitted his side were given a stern test by Durban City in the first half, but praised the Buccaneers’ dominant second-half display.

The Buccaneers secured their fourth straight victory in the Betway Premiership after their 2-0 win over Durban City.

Goals from Lebone Seema and Tshepang Moremi guided the Buccaneers to victory at the Orlando Amstel Arena in Soweto.

Ouaddou revealed that Pirates were surprised by Durban’s back-five formation, with Sipho Chaine’s saves keeping them in the contest before the visitors responded with a much-improved performance after the break.

“Look, I think we were a bit surprised by the aggressiveness of Durban but at the same time we had spoken about that, it’s their fighting spirit, they’re used to play like that so we were not comfortable in the first half to be honest,” Ouaddou told SuperSport after the game.

“I think in the first half Durban deserved to score at least 2-0 and thanks to Sipho Chaine that really saved the team and after we went into halftime and made some tactical adjustments.

“I think we were surprised by this back-five, we thought they would come with a back-four, but we made this adjustment and I think the second half was just fantastic to the referees. For me, one of the best second halves that we played since now.

“The players played the football we want, playing forward, between the lines, we found the third-man running between the space and we scored in the set-pieces, so the second half was really perfect and credit has to be given to the boys.”