The bulky frontman is pleased to have returned to the Bucs’ starting line-up against Bakgaga Ba Mphahlele
Orlando Pirates striker Tshegofatso Mabasa has emphasised the importance of converting their goalscoring opportunities.
The 23-year-old player marked his return to the Bucs starting line-up with a goal in their 1-1 draw with Baroka FC in a PSL match on Tuesday evening.
Mabasa started his first league match since November 2019 with the Buccaneers enduring a four-match goal drought.
It took 16 minutes for the left-footed hitman to net his seventh league goal of the season and he is grateful to Pirates head coach Josef Zinnbauer for handing him a chance to start at Ellis Park Stadium.
“First of all I would like to thank the man [God] above and thank the coach for the opportunity that he gave me,” Mabasa said on the club’s official Twitter account.
“I have been working hard recently, even during the lockdown. I am honestly grateful for the opportunity that I got tonight.
“Even if you look at the amount of work I put in tonight it helped the team somehow,” he added.
Pirates striker Frank Mhango is the league’s top goalscorer with 14 goals, but he has failed to score in his last six matches in the competition.
The Soweto giants are also winless in their last five league matches and Mabasa indicated the team needs to start scoring goals in order to stand a better chance of winning games.
“Honestly, we need to get better results and we need to utilize the chances that we create,” the former Bloemfontein Celtic centre forward said.
“We have to score goals definitely.”
Pirates are currently placed third on the league standings – three points behind second-placed Mamelodi Sundowns, who have two games in hand.
The Buccaneers have four matches left which are against Cape Town City, SuperSport United, Maritzburg United as well as Stellensbosh FC.
Finishing third in the league will see Zinnbauer’s side qualify for next season’s Caf Confederation Cup having been the runners-up in the continental tournament in 2015.
While a top-two finish would earn Pirates a spot in the 2020/21 Caf Champions League – a tournament which they won in 1995 and they were runners-up in 2013.
Pirates’ next encounter against City is at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday, August 23.
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