Former Orlando Pirates striker James Mothibi has discussed the team's penalty in their 2-1 victory against Sekhukhune United.
The Buccaneers defeated Babina Noko on Saturday to claim the Nedbank Cup, which was their second trophy this season under Jose Riveiro, having won the MTN8 earlier in the campaign.
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With Sekhukhune leading 1-0 from a Sibusiso Vilakazi goal, Bucs equalised courtesy of a penalty goal from Tapelo Xoki after Victor Letsoalo was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box.
Terrence Dzvukamanja went on to score the winner later in the game to give the Soweto giants the much-needed victory.
"I wanted Pirates to win and I predicted that the score would be 3-1 but it was 2-1 in the end. With the history that Pirates have, there was no way that they would lose with all due respect to Sekhukhune United. I like their defensive organisation when they have the ball and when they don't have the ball.
"They played in phases and there were moments where they blocked Pirates with their low block defence and their movement off the ball was brilliant. I give them credit for that," said Mothibi.
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"Commenting on the penalty, for me it was a clear penalty. I saw that Orlando Pirates legend Marks Maponyane commented on Twitter questioning the penalty and saying that such incidents are not good for our football. I'm not sure what did he mean by that. Once you are down and you stretch your hand to reach out for the ball, it is a clear penalty.
"Yes, (Thembinkosi) Lorch did his tricks and in football there are tricks. If you don't have the intelligence of creating such situations, you might as well not play football. How many bad decisions went against Pirates in that game? People never said anything about those. About the penalty, that was not a bad decision and the referee was honest and I'm not saying this because I played for Pirates. Congratulations to Pirates' players, technical team, management and the supporters for the victory.
"The people behind Pirates' success are Irvin Khoza, Nkosana Khoza, Mpumi Khoza, Thandi (Merafe) and them. They are doing their administration duties very well and those are the people that do not normally get the credit. We need to credit the management in terms of the professionalism that they are instilling into the club and as legends we feel happy. I was sitting with Ronnie Zondi, Bruce Ramokgadi, Eugene Zwane and (Mandla) 'Metroblitz' Sithole and we were analysing the game and we were very happy. Hard luck to Sekhukhune United but they played very well," he said.
