Roger de Sa was happy that his gamble to bring on Evans Rusike paid dividends as Maritzburg United came from behind to beat Free State Stars 2-1 at the Harry Gwala Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Team of Choice were 1-0 down at the half-time break after Mohammed Anas put Stars ahead in the 21st minute. Rusike was introduced in the second half  in place of Mohau Mokate and the pacy striker levelled the score in the 65th minute. Lebogang Maboe then netted the winner to secure De Sa’s first win as Maritzburg coach.

The Mozambique-born coach believes that his team fully deserved their victory.

‘To be honest, I think it [the win] was deserved and I thought we were better than them [Free State Stars], especially after they scored, we were playing pretty well,’ De Sa said after the match.

The former Orlando Pirates coach admitted that he took a chance bringing on Rusike, who was still suffering from AFCON 2017 after-effects.

‘We made a change [at half-time], we brought Evans in and Evans is not hundred percent there yet, but we thought ‘let’s take a risk’ and Mokate was looking a bit tired and it paid off,’ he said.

The former Ajax Cape Town coach believes that the result has given his team some breathing space.

‘This result enables us to look ahead of us, not behind us, and it puts you in the position where you now look at the teams above us, not worried about teams behind us,’ the former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper said.

With a win now under his belt, De Sa believes that his team can move even further up the league table.

‘Hopefully we can focus on the glass half-full and not the glass half-empty this time. But now we’re there with those teams around position six, seven and eight, so we’ve got a chance [to go further].’ De Sa concluded.

Maritzburg face Golden Arrows at the Chatsworth Stadium on Saturday evening.

Kick-off is scheduled for 18:00.