Win against Arrows is morale booster after poor run, says relieved Maduka

Royal AM coach John Maduka admitted being relieved following their 1-0 victory over Golden Arrows in the DStv Premiership match at Harry Gwala Stadium on Tuesday.

The win courtesy of Menzi Masuku's early striker saw Royal end their five-match winless run where they lost four and drew once across all competitions.

Maduka said the victory has also brought confidence to the team as he was starting to have doubts about himself as a coach.

"It was very important. We needed something like that to give players confidence again," Maduka told the media after the match.

"If you lose so many games in a row, it takes the confidence away from you. You stop believing in yourself, so it was really good for us to get points. I think we deserved it from the word go. You could see the boys pushed and worked very hard and took the game away from Arrows and put them under pressure.

"You could see towards the end of the game even our players started to have problems with cramping because the intensity was very high. So, we needed this one to get the confidence back again."

With rumours of Clinton Larsen joining the club following their poor results, Maduka refused to be drawn into speculation and that the right people to ask were the management.

"I don't think I should comment on rumours because I focus on the job. If there is anyone else to comment, it is the management...," he said.

"The management have not said anything about that to me and I take it as rumours. I think that should be directed to the management, not me."

Meanwhile, Arrows coach Mabhuti Khenyeza was gracious in defeat and that they would take some positives from the match.

"Sometimes you take games like this and accept that you lost and take a lot of positives from that," Khenyeza said.

"We won games like this in the past when we got opportunities to score... We must not fault anyone and cry about it. Well done to Royal, they managed to protect their goal because in the second half, they attacked us twice and it was the same thing when we played against AmaZulu.

"I think some of the players will have a little bit of a break and play others. We need fresh legs. We played on Saturday, Tuesday and now Sunday, but we will push because it's not only us other teams who are in the same situation."

Arrows' next match is against AmaZulu on Sunday, but it is not clear if that game will go ahead following the death of Bonginkosi Ntuli on Sunday.