Orlando Pirates midfielder Miguel Timm has dedicated the team’s victory to Deon Hotto and has urged him to “keep his head up” and “keep moving forward” after his costly error against Venda Football Academy in the Nedbank Cup.

The Namibian attacker grabbed an assist after he set up the opening goal for Kermit Erasmus, who opened the scoring after just 24 minutes.

Hotto then turned villain when gave the ball away to Edmore Chirambadare in the danger area to slot home the equalising goal and send the match into extra time.

However, Thembinkosi Lorch managed to score the winning goal for the Buccaneers in extra time to see his side advance to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

Timm, who was named man of the match, came to the defence of his teammate and urged him to keep his head high after his mistake nearly cost Pirates the match.

“We made it difficult. It was unfortunate with [Hotto] and that is okay, we make mistakes,” Timm told SuperSport TV after the match.

“I would like to dedicate this victory to him. I want to keep his head up and we keep moving forward.

“We needed a good rhythm like our coach [Jose Riveiro] said, that is the difference between the level of football in the country and worldwide, which I think we had.

“We had them on the back foot for large parts of the game and against the run of play. That mistake happens and obviously, they get confident and that is where the experience needs to come in.

“A lot of calmness, we knew we had another half an hour. We did rush at moments but in the end, enough experience got us the second goal to avoid penalties.”

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