Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane was satisfied to walk away with a 1-0 victory over Free State Stars in the Absa Premiership encounter on Sunday.

A 45th-minute strike by Motjeka Madisha proved to be the difference in the match, which saw the Brazilians close the gap on Absa Premiership leaders Cape Town City to just four points, with three games in-hand.

Mosimane admits that he was happy to walk away with maximum points at the James Motlatsi Stadium ,but also praised Ea Lla Koto shot-stopper Thela Ngobeni, who made serval saves to deny Sundowns from adding to the scoreline.

‘At this point in time, it’s a game [that would be decided by one goal], not a game of five goals or six. We’ve got to take what’s on the table, and what was on the table today was one goal and three points,’ Mosimane said after the match.

‘We tried to score, especially with set pieces, but Thela (Ngobeni) didn’t want us to score, the goal-post didn’t want us to score.

‘We were a little bit tired, you could see. [There were] a lot of heavy legs, [we’ve played] a lot of games. You could see in the last 20, 30 minutes we were not there so we just soaked up the pressure and dragged the game until it finished.’

The 52-year-old admitted that his side are feeling the impact of their busy fixture schedule, but insisted that their will-to-win prevailed despite a number of players feeling fatigued.

‘Khama [Billiat] has tight hamstrings, Thapelo [Morena] has tight hamstrings, Percy [Tau] has two tight hamstrings [but] it’s our [Sundowns’] life and we just have to manage,’ he added.

‘I must tell you, we are feeling it [the heavy fixture schedule] but we are mentally strong and we want to win the game so if you are mentally strong and you want to win the game, that is important.’

Mamelodi Sundowns will next take on SuperSport United in a mouth-watering clash at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in the Absa Premiership on Wednesday.

Kick-off has been set for 19:30.