NEWS: Orlando Pirates captain Innocent Maela lauds Tshegofatso Mabasa, encourages striker to continue goalscoring form ahead of Nedbank Cup final

Mabasa has been an integral player for Pirates this season as he bagged the DStv Premiership Golden Boot while also being named the PSL Player of the Month for May.

Mabasa pipped players such as Sundowns’ Jose Ribeiro and Stellenbosch’s Iqraam Rayners in the race for the coveted strikers’ gong with 16 goals, and Maela now hopes Mabasa can deliver even more goals in this weekend’s Nedbank Cup final against rivals and DStv Premiership champions Sundowns.

“Generally, in life when you are humble, you will always be surrounded by people who are willing to fight for you and help you when you need the help. Tshego is a smart guy, he is down to earth and he works really hard,” said Maela.

“What I like most about him is that he is selfless, you can see that in the way that you play that he is always thinking about the player next to him. Because of the characteristics that he has within him.

“We are able to help him because we know that he is also there for us when we need him. All I can say is that he must continue keeping his head down and keep scoring goals for the team,” the Bucs skipper added. 

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This will be the second time that Downs and Pirates meet in a domestic cup final as the Buccaneers got the better of Masandawana in the MTN8 final.

Bucs are now looking to repeat a cup double two seasons in a row and the club’s skipper says there will no stone left unturned when gearing up for the encounter with Sundowns.

“We will do our preparations with matches analysis, but we don’t only watch one match. We watch a lot of games that we prepare for, so we will see and find spaces and moments where we can exploit them.

“They are a good team, but they have their weaknesses like any other team. We have seen over the weekend (when Downs lost to Cape Town City) that anything can happen, so we will plan and take our time.

“There are moments in the season when we did not have time to prepare but this we are having a full week,” Maela concluded. 

The Nedbank Cup final will take place at the Mbombela Stadium this coming Saturday.

Kick-off is scheduled for 15:30.