Maritzburg United defender Clayton Daniels has revealed that coach Ernst Middendorp never used the emotion of his Kaizer Chiefs departure to motivate his players ahead of their 2-0 victory over Amakhosi.

The German mentor has helped turn around the fortunes of the Team of Choice, piling more misery on his former team with a 2-0 win on Saturday as Chiefs now languish in 14th place on the DStv Premiership log, just one point above the relegation zone.

Speaking to KickOff.com, Daniel admitted that the coach never spoke about his former team and deserves praise and recognition for what he achieved with the Chiefs side during his tenure.

‘First of all, you know, I have to give congratulations to the coach [Middendorp],’ Daniels told the website.

‘You know he was the former coach of Kaizer Chiefs and you know what happened there, he almost won the league. But big compliments to him, he never used that emotion to say to us, “Listen here, we are playing Kaizer Chiefs, my former club, or we almost won the league with them and they fired me.”

‘He never used those emotions to motivate us, you know. He is very matured in the game. Some other coaches would have done that.’