AmaZulu coach Pablo Franco has described their 1-0 hard-fought victory over Cape Town City as a confidence booster as they prepare to host Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinal at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday (6pm).

The victory at the windy Cape Town Stadium on Sunday was Usuthu's first in the DStv Premiership matches this year in seven fixtures.

Junior Dion scored the only goal in the second half to hand Usuthu their first three points and Franco wants his side to build on this performance against the Buccaneers.

"Massive game this week. I think it has been a long time since AmaZulu has beaten Pirates and most of the time we are losing against them. We drew against them in the first round," the Spaniard told the media after the match.

"I see this team far from the level I want it to be. I see it growing constantly and overcoming defeat and I think we should be happy with what we are achieving, but we want more.

"Yes, we didn't win in the league until now, but we were not losing many games. I think the team has always been competitive, sometimes we were playing well, but we were not getting the results.

"We are committed to this project. We know this is a long-term project and since we are here, we are adding a lot of quality to this club.

"We have options to fight for a top eight, knowing that it is going to be difficult. But we have faced many difficulties the whole season."

Franco was also pleased with the performance against the Citizens but that there is still a lot of work they need to do going forward.

"It was a huge win for us away from home against one of the best teams in the PSL. We got the results, the three points and unlucky not being a huge win for us," he said.

Meanwhile, Royal AM coach John Maduka was also relieved to have ended their two successive defeats with a win when they beat Polokwane City 3-2 at Harry Gwala Stadium also on Sunday.

Sedwyn George, Sikhethele Mabuza and Zukile Mkhize scored for Royal, while Douglas Mapfumo netted a brace for Polokwane.

"It has been good at home and it's good to see that whenever we are at home, we are getting results because it has been very difficult for us away from home," Maduka told the club media department.

"Credit to the boys. They worked very hard. But after we scored, we made crucial mistakes and we were punished. If we can avoid that, I think we will be fine."