Kaizer Chiefs coach Gavin Hunt has lauded the workmanlike performance of his players in their 1-0 Soweto derby win over Orlando Pirates at the FNB Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

A tightly-fought derby was settled by Samir Nurkovic’s overhead kick in the 54th minute.

Nurkovic missed a wonderful chance to add a second goal when he was played in by a defence-splitting pass from Happy Mashiane 15 minutes later, and on the balance of play, Chiefs did have the better and more frequent chances.

This was despite Pirates having come into the match as the form-team and in a relatively free-scoring mood of late.

Hunt said that with the individual quality Pirates have, the plan had always been to allow them to have a fair amount of the ball, but to ensure that they couldn’t do much damage with it.

“I thought it was well deserved. I thought we had the better chances,” the Amakhosi tactician said after the game in his post-match interview with SuperSport TV.

“We had to give them the space to play. We don’t have enough of what they they have got – you know what I mean – in terms of quality. So we have got to do what we have got to do, ride it out.

“But we had some good chances. You know we could have scored [more], Samir [Nurkovic] could have got a hat-trick.”

For Hunt, whose side had not won in the league since January prior to the match, it was all about digging deep and doing the hard yards.

“So we stuck to it. I said to the players, just stick to it. Listen to what I’m trying [to say]. Stick to it, we’ll get better. We have got to do what we have to do, and it was a good performance,” the former Moroka Swallows, SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits coach explained.

“So all in all the players were fantastic, they dug in. Most important, we denied them a lot of opportunities. I don’t think our goalkeeper made a save, which was good.

On the subject of work ethic, Hunt continued:

“If you don’t have that in football, you won’t win anything. It doesn’t matter how good your players are or who you are, you’ll never win anything.

“That’s something that I will try and instill, but that takes time. That takes change, big change, mental, everything.

“All in all it was a good result for us, and most important thing, to keep us moving away [from the lower part of the table – Chiefs are now three points outside of the top eight bracket].