Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says they were playing for the late Motjeka Madisha after their 2-0 win over Chippa United.

Read: Table-Topping Sundowns Open Five-Point Gap

Sundowns released a statement on Saturday after the family had confirmed the passing of the Bafana Bafana international.

Both Sundowns and Chippa stopped play after two minutes for a minute's applause for Madisha, who the number two jersey.

"The game panned out the way we thought, we knew that they would be planting five in the heart of midfield but we had planned for that, we wanted a direct confrontation with our full-backs and their wing-backs," Mngqithi told SuperSport TV.

"Both of them did very well, Lebo [Maboe] was exceptional, Lyle [Lakay] was exceptional in dealing with those one v ones but we didn't score the goals we should have scored, I think today we could have easily scored six or more goals.

"But there are times in football you must accept that maybe Madisha wanted us to only score two because we were playing for him today.

"So I think it's fair to give him the two goals that he might have wanted. Because today I honestly believe we deserve to score more than four, five goals but that's football for you," he said.

View the players offloaded by Sundowns this year: