Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic says he was impressed with the way Abel Mabaso conducted himself after coming on to replace the injured Ben Motshwari.

The 27-year-old made only his second appearance for the Buccaneers this campaign after he was brought on to replace Motshwari at the start of the second half during their 1-0 win over Golden Arrows.

The win saw Pirates move up to second place in the league standings with 39 points from 22 games, trailing log-leaders Mamelodi Sundowns by a point.

‘We had three defenders at the back in order for creative players Vincent Pule and Kudakwashe Mahachi to play on the wings, and [Thembinkosi] Lorch and [Luvuyo] Memela to play as two number tens playing behind [Justin ] Shonga. With five attacking players, or at least six players always roaming and transforming, but in the first half it didn’t work out as Ben Motshwari got injured. He went off and we put in [Abel] Mabaso and it’s refreshing the way he conducted himself,’ Sredojevic told SuperSport TV after the game.

‘Later on we wanted to control the midfield more and we put in Xolani Mlambo [in place of Memela]. From then on we controlled, not to let the opponent endanger our defence and our attacking players to have a good backup. We created many chances in the second half, we could have killed the game, however three points are three points, we shall look at this and prepare for our next game against Bloemfontein Celtic,’ he concluded.