AmaZulu head coach Benni McCarthy was full of praise for his sides exceptionally performance to hand Mamelodi Sundowns their first defeat in the DStv Premiership on Monday evening.

Usuthu secured back to back victories in the DStv Premiership after they ended Sundowns’ 25 game unbeaten run following their 1-0 win at the Kings Park Stadium in Durban.

As a result, Sundowns remain at the top of the league standings with 43 points from 18 games, while Usuthu moved up to third place on the table, level on 27 points with second placd Pirates after 18 matches.

“Finally something, a bit of consistency for the team but we were made to work exceptionally hard, so I’ve got to give the players credit for showing bravery, we were brave today,” McCarthy told SuperSport TV after the game.

“Because we knew it was a game that we were not going to dominate, how we want to be a possession-based football team.

“We want to shift the ball but we’re up against the masters in the league at keeping the ball and moving the teams around.

“But the objective was for us to just to make sure we block the middle part, we give them the sides, we allow them to go wide because we know Sikhakhane and Qalinge they will have the energy to track back so we’re kind of covered,” he explained.

“But Sundowns is exceptionally dangerous when we allow them to come through the middle and today it paid off. Makhaula and Buchanan were magnificent, Memela good shift, good shift from everyone in the team.

“But I think we kind of missed the trick at times because it was just hitting them on a counter and not using the ball cleverly and getting Ntuli into spaces, it was always that final pass that led us down in those crucial stages of the game.

“But you know what after a performance like that, you stopped the champions from rolling with it, well it’s theirs to go but this is football and when you play at this level it’s never over until it’s over.

“We’ll just continue to fight but we know we’re far from it, as long as these kind of performances, the mindset that’s what we need from these guys and then we can get ourselves going again and we can get closer to where we should be.”