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Cape Town - New Chippa United coach Clinton Larsen has explained that having a week to prepare helped his side to get the 2-0 victory over fellow strugglers Maritzburg United last Saturday.
Larsen recently replaced Joel Masutha at Chippa and brought a sense of relief to the Chilli Boys as he guided the team to a much-needed three points at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium last weekend.
Chippa have gone through three coaches already in 2018/19 with Dan Malesela, Eric Tinkler and Masutha all failing to make the grade in the eyes of club boss Chippa Mpengesi.
He told KickOff website: "Fortunately for me, I had a week to train and see what is needed in this team.
"The boys responded very well. We now won our first game in three months.
"I came to a club that has been changing coaches a lot. It didn't sit well with the players and I had to change the mood in the camp.
"I'm happy it worked and now we are all on the same page."
The victory over the hapless Team of Choice ended an 11-match winless run for the Port Elizabeth-based outfit.
The win sees the club move to 15 points which is the same number collected by Baroka and AmaZulu near the bottom of the standings. Meanwhile, Maritzburg are rock-bottom on 11.
The 47-year-old went on to say that that their opponents' league clash with Mamelodi Sundowns on the previous Wednesday had been advantageous.
The former Golden Arrows mentor concluded: "We honestly knew about them. We had to enjoy ourselves and make sure they are not getting any chances. They played against Sundowns and you could see they were tired."
"This win is very important to us as we want to get out of the relegation zone, which is our main focus."
Chippa are next in action in a Nedbank Cup round of 32 tie on Saturday against Mamelodi Sundowns.
Kick-off is at 15:00.
