Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has defended his decision to field attacker Thembinkosi Lorch in their victory over Cape Town Spurs.

The Buccaneers advanced to the next round of the Carling Knockout Cup following their 2-0 victory over the Urban Warriors thanks to goals by Tapelo Xoki and Kermit Erasmus at the Orlando Stadium on Friday.

Pirates have down been drawn against Richards Bay with the two sides set to go head-to-head in KwaZulu-Natal.

Riveiro has since praised Lorch after his impressive Man of the Match performance in the round of 16.

“I think he’s in a good moment, and his contribution is always very welcome to the team,” Riveiro said as per SoccerLaduma.

“We had an accident in the first half, we had to use one spot with Sipho so we were a bit short in the end.

“So I spoke with Lorch in the last minutes, he said he was fine. Obviously, it’s normal after a long period to have some cramps in the game.

“Lorch is a player sometimes we don’t we are not conscious about how much he runs in the game, how many times he runs into space and at the end of the game he played the bill a bit, but you can see that he’s in a good space, he’s fit and could manage to finish the game anyway.”

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