Maritzburg United Had New Signings On Show At The Weekend

It was a day of debuts for Maritzburg United over the weekend as they got their 2019/20 campaign underway, and Eric Tinkler saw plenty of positives despite the result.   Check out the new Maritzburg stars in the gallery above   The Team of Choice went down 1-0 to Golden Arrows is their season started away from home on Sunday, but there were debuts for Gabriel Nyoni, Daylon Claasen and Phumlani Ntshangase, while Judas Moseamedi made his first appearance since completing a permanent move to Pietermaritzburg.   Read: Record-Breaker Keen On Bafana Job? It was a winning goal from Michael Gumede seconds after the start of the second half that sealed the game, and while Maritzburg had some good spells of play, it was Abafana Bes'thende that clinched the three points.   Speaking to Maritzburg's official website after the game, Tinkler said, "Obviously there's disappointment with the loss, but I was quite happy with the performance from what I saw… First half they didn't really create anything, I don't think Richard (Ofori) really needed to make a save. They were looking to play with three up, to try and isolate our central defenders, I thought we dealt with that very well.   "We managed to catch them once or twice on the transition, Gabriel put in some nice balls, but good defending from them. Coming it at half time I was quite happy, but conceding the goal after 30 seconds I think that takes the wind out of you, or potentially could - although I thought the players responded very well.   "I think we definitely deserved more, but football can be cruel, that's the harsh reality."   Meanwhile, speaking specifically about his new signings, Tinkler said, "I need to take the positives and I thought there were a lot of positives… I thought Gabriel had a fantastic debut, I thought Daylon Claasen was exceptional, he just grew stronger and better, more comfortable on the ball and I think he can still offer us a whole lot more.   Read: Chiefs To Make Shock Move For Bafana Forward? "Phumlani also did well. There are areas he can improve on, but things which are fixable. Up front Judas Moseamedi worked his socks off. Overall I felt everybody worked extremely hard and they didn't drop their heads after conceding. I see a lot of positives, we can build on this, we can better."   Next up for Maritzburg is a clash with Highlands Park this weekend in their first home game of the season.

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