Jonevret welcomes Bucs break

Following his first victory as Orlando Pirates coach, after beating ABC Motsepe League side EC Bees 3-1 in the Nedbank Cup last-32 on Sunday, Kjell Jonevret (below) says he will now focus on building a better understanding between himself and his squad.

The Swedish coach has three weeks to work with most of his squad, thanks to the international break, before returning to action with an Absa Premiership clash at Free State Stars at the James Motlatsi Stadium on April 1.

“I’m very happy we won this one and this could help us. Now we have three weeks to train ... we have to wait until the beginning of April for another league game,” said the Bucs coach.

“We are still trying to understand each other.”

The Pirates mentor was happy with the performance of his players on Sunday and hopes the win will ignite some confidence following a string of poor results, which saw the Buccaneers go 12 games in a row without a win in all competitions.

“They were good and had a lot of energy, we had some problems with our passing game and we lost a lot of balls. This team have a lot of talented players, but right now they are a lot less confident,” he added.

“I think we had good control of the first half, most of the time and there were chances. But after we had scored the second one (goal), I mean that goal by EC Bees should have been be dealt with by us. We should never have allowed them to get that one, but you saw what happened, we gave them a goal. After that, they got a lot of energy, but in the end I am very happy we won this one.”