Baxter: The guys showed real character

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  • Post published:April 3, 2022

Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter praised his side’s character during their 3-1 win over Chippa United at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

A first half goal from Samir Nurkovic and two second half goals for substitutes Keagan Dolly and Coke Alexander saw Amakhosi walk away with all three points in Gqeberha.

The win saw Amakhosi remain in third place with 38 points, two points behind second placed Royal AM and 13 behind leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.

Baxter insists that he was pleased with his side’s overall performance but was not happy to have conceded a goal.

“I was pleased with 70 of the 90 minutes,” the Chiefs coach told SuperSport TV after the game.

“I think the guys showed character. The way we came back. We got an equaliser against us. I would like to see it again but we had a goal chalked off against us which was a 100 percent mistake by the goalkeeper and we get a goal. And that takes character.

“In the situation that we’re in and trying to go for the highest position possible that takes character. We had a little spell after that with poor concentration but we turned it around and I think last half hour we got it back and our movement was good again and we played decent football.”

When questioned about his substitution choices, Baxter said: “We didn’t want to play Keagan with the long trip but we knew he had 20 minutes in his legs and we wanted him. Bernie wasn’t doing badly but we’ve got another game on Tuesday and just the fresh legs and the different skill-set that Keagan has was good. Cole, we needed fresh legs in midfield.

“Phatu [Nange] looked like he was going down a little bit. It just changed the game a little bit for us and then moving Rama to left-back. We weren’t interested in Reeve foraging forward at 2-1 because we just wanted to kill the game.”