Jose Riveiro proud of Orlando Pirates after courageous Arrows victory

After a goalless first half at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the Buccaneers opened the scoring through Patrick Maswanganji with 51 minutes played.

Arrows were back in the game though just eight minutes later as Siyanda Mthanti hit the target, but Tshegofatso Mabasa secured the result with his strike in the 72nd minute mark.

It was an important three points for Pirates, who are still pushing to catch league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, but also comes on the back of a hard-fought Soweto derby win, and ahead of the Nedbank Cup final this weekend.

Speaking after the game, a proud Riveiro told SuperSport: "Tough and difficult to play, for different reasons.

"We struggled a little bit in the first half with the high-pressing from Arrows. I think they did an extraordinary effort in the first half. I think the effort in the second half, we were much better.

"We managed to find different solutions in our build-up and due to that, we managed to take the lead and we conceded one goal when nothing was really happening on the field at that time, but they showed a lot of courage in the last part of the game."

The Bucs boss added: "If you think about the amount of fatigue that they have been accumulating in the season. A lot of players come into the starting eleven for the first time, it's not easy to compete here in these circumstances and I think the team showed we came here to play seriously, to get the three points and I'm so happy to see them performing like that."