What made the feeling of beating Kaizer Chiefs even sweeter for Milford FC was that their chairman is an Amakhosi faithful and midfielder Mjabulise Mkhize feels that the victory should show the owner that he should not be supporting anyone else.
Milford joined a growing list of lower division sides to upset Kaizer Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup, booting the Soweto giants out in the last 32 round via a penalty shootout at FNB Stadium on Sunday evening.
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While the pain of losing to a lower division side is not new to Chiefs' players and supporters, Milford entered unfamiliar territory with a victory that they will probably talk about long after they've hung up their boots. It will probably go down as their most memorable victory and it's one chairman Dr Xanti Pupuma will have etched in his heart for one particular reason, as Mkhize explained.
"It was really amazing, from our chairman to the kid manager. It was really an amazing feeling. Our chairman supports Chiefs, so for us to beat Chiefs, he will now know that his team is the best and he can't support anyone else whereas he has a team. The guys were happy and we were singing. The chairman told us not to put that win in our heads because we still have to play in the league and we are not sitting in a good position," Mkhize told the Siya crew.
Mkhize admitted that their initial plan to overcome Amakhosi did not work, so they had to absorb the pressure and hope to catch the hosts on the counter. That did not work either, but they defended well and the brilliance of goalkeeper Siphamandla Hleza ensured that they went all the way to penalties.
"Our plan was to play our normal game and express ourselves and impose ourselves. When the game started, the nerves took control of the younger ones in the team, which made it somewhat difficult for us to play our normal game. We changed to create a low block, to say let's frustrate them and then we are going to catch them on the counter.
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"Unfortunately, we could not even catch them on the counter because they were coming at us. They created a lot of scoring opportunities, but I think the guys were superb. We kept the structure and we made everything easy for each other. We fought for each other and for the team."
Milford will face Stellenbosch in the last 16 after the draw was conducted on Monday evening in Randburg, Johannesburg.
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