Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena admits that Richards Bay “pushed” them in a difficult battle at the King Goodwill Zwelithini Stadium in Durban.

The Brazilians walked away with a positive result away from home following their 2-0 win courtesy of goals from Cassius Mailula and Haashim Domingo.

The win sees Sundowns open a 10 point lead over second placed SuperSport United, with 37 points from 15 games, while Bay now find themselves in third place with 26 points after 15 matches.

Masandawana will now return home to begin preparations for their upcoming DStv Premiership fixture against Chippa United at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday.

“In the first half I thought we were very very good, we ran out of legs a little bit in the second half,” Mokwena told his club’s official website.

“As I said, sometimes the team has to suffer together, it’s important because it will help later on in games where you have legs but the opposition is putting you under a lot of stress and you can trust each other.

“Richards Bay pushed us today, we played against number three on the log, a team that’s difficult to beat. A lot of teams will struggle to come here and pick up points, they pushed us very hard. We’re going to have to that every game, it’s only halfway through the season, it’s only fifteen games.”

He added: “Congratulations to Mamelodi Sundowns and congratulations to the players for a lot of hard work that they put in.

“It’s the culture of the club, I think the DNA of the club is ‘Shoe Shine and Piano’. It’s a style that was created many years ago by many legends. It’s about the quality of the players, you cannot speak about how well we played without speaking about the quality of our players.”

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