Did you hear that pin drop last night?

WHEN will “finishing specialist” Stephane Adam finally earn his paycheck at Orlando Pirates? That was the question on the lips of many Buccaneers supporters as they watched their team squander several chances last night in their PSL clash against Wits.

Frenchman Adam was appointed to work on the club’s end product in the final third at the beginning of this month, but so far his contribution is yet to be evident.

Of course “Rome wasn’t built in a day” as the old adage goes, but football supporters are an impatient and fickle bunch.

What has added to their frustration has been the hype around this Pirates team, which finished runners-up in the league last season. Expectations, with the beefing of the technical team – Adam among the list of new arrivals – is at an all-time high. The Buccaneers have not won a trophy in four years.

The talking had to come to an end after what looked to be a solid pre-season and necessary reinforcements in the playing personnel were made.

You could hear a pin drop last night when Haashim Domingo came off the bench, snuck behind the Pirates defence to give Wits the lead via a deflection with 10 minutes to go. The game itself looked like it was headed for a stalemate even though the home team had more chances than their on-form opponents. The Clever Boys came into the fixture on the back of two emphatic wins over Free State Stars and Kaizer Chiefs, in which they scored a total of six goals and conceded only once.

Wits kept their shape and structure and forced Pirates to only attempt to strike from range. But when striker Justin Shonga found an opening in their box thanks to an error by Wits left-back Sifiso Hlanti, he couldn’t finish.

Adam must have been appalled – Shonga only had keeper Darren Keet to beat, but shot right at him and squandered a glorious opportunity to give Pirates the lead.

It was left to 23-year-old Domingo to show them how it’s done as he single-handedly created something out of nothing and squeezed the ball past Keet’s counterpart Siyabonga Mpontshane via a deflection from Gladwin Shitolo for Wits to make it three wins in succession and top the league table.