Shakes: Get off Tokelo's back, please

BAFANA Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba says South Africans should stop criticising striker Tokelo Rantie.

Rantie top scored for Bafana in the 2015 Afcon qualifiers with four goals and was a star performer in the final Group A clash against Nigeria last week.

Rantie, 24, has taken some flak for being selfish at times and for wasting glorious opportunities, but his contribution to the team's qualification success was immense.

"It's unfortunate these things happen. Negative things will always take the upper hand against the positive things," said Mashaba.

"We are aware that we need to score goals and we don't need people to make us aware of that. We know that we need to address it. I don't understand why people should criticise a player like Rantie.

"Most of the chances he gets he creates for himself and that's a positive we need to look at and work on.

We ask people to give us a chance. We are working on the players and we will get better as a team."

Rantie said:"I decided to stop worrying and I played my own game. I let go of all the pressure I had been feeling.