Orlando Pirates have played six friendly matches so far during the African Cup of Nations break and coach Augusto Palacios said they have been working on the physical condition and attitude of the players.

Palacios added that the fine-tuning of his players is in anticipation of what promises to be a gruelling second half of the season as they look to force their way into the top half of the table.

The Buccaneers went into the Christmas break sitting on 10th place on the log table and they will have to restart the second round of the campaign with conviction if they are to achieve their mission of challenging pacesetters SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits.

On Friday‚ Pirates played against National First Division side Black Leopards at Orlando Stadium where they played two 90-minute matches to allow all the players in the squad to get some much-needed game time.

For the first encounter‚ Pirates recorded a convincing 4-0 win over Leopards with striker Thamsanqa Gabuza netting a brace and midfielders Mpho Makola and Riyaad Norodien scoring a goal apiece.

In the second 90 minutes of match‚ the Buccaneers kept their foot on the pedal and Tendai Ndoro‚ who recently returned from Gabon where he represented Zimbabwe at the Cup of Nations‚ continued where he left off in the first half of the season by scoring a hat-trick.

The two attacking midfielders‚ Bernard Morrison and Gift Motupa‚ contributed with one goal each.

After the match‚ Palacios said: “It’s not about the number of goals but rather the physical condition and the attitude of the players that we are interested in. All the players are focused and you can see it during training and when playing‚ we are very happy about this.”