NEWS: Desiree Ellis lays down possible succession plan for Banyana Banyana after fringe players impress in Senegal

South Africa spent about a week where they held the West Africans to a 1-1 draw before beating Senegal 2-0 on Tuesday.

Ellis only had two overseas-based players and gave a host of fringe players a runout, as she anticipates the decline of players Lebogang Ramalepe and Bambanani Mbane, who are on the wrong side of 30 years old.

“The other players have been part of the squad, although in and out. Some have not played regularly.

“We wanted to give them game time and make sure that we test them so that when the overseas players are not available, these players have to step up. In this game, I think they passed the test,” said Ellis.

South Africa felt hard done in the first match where Mbayang Saw scored a stoppage-time penalty to cancel Nthabiseng Majiya’s 68th minute strike, but Ellis made sure to take notes and left no stone unturned in the second encounter.

“We looked at the previous game and we were disappointed with ourselves because we felt we could have done better.

“We had two days where we worked on certain things that did not go well for us on the first game and it came together today.

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We made changes and we had absolute trust and confidence in the players that we chose. The game plan worked very well because we controlled all areas of the pitch.

“If you talk about the scoreline, it could have been more because of the chances that we created.

“But we always look for improvement in our performances and in this game, we showed the quality of our football and the way we want to play. It was a very successful exercise,” said Ellis.

Banyana have no scheduled matches for the rest of this year but could compete in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations if the Confederation of African Football goes ahead with the tournament pencilled down to be staged in Morocco.

Be that as it may, Ellis takes all the positives from these two games.

“The results matter, it gives the team confidence. We took a group of players who don’t play regularly, and to come away with a draw and a win says a lot for the confidence.

“We are looking for ways to do things better all the time because at the end of the day, that is who we are and we are not going to change that. It is important that we take the draw and use that to rectify things,” the Banyana mentor concluded.