The Brazilians would have to wait until the second-half at Princess Magogo Stadium to finally unlock a stubborn Abafana Bes’thende defence as Hlompho Kekana opened the scoring with a curling shot, before Modjeka Madisha headed home to make sure of the points.
The result took Sundowns top of the Absa Premiership standings, one point ahead of Cape Town City with a game in hand, and Mosimane was thrilled to have picked up three very difficult points away from home.
“They [Arrows] always stretch us to pieces, and they did the same thing. They have the speed, that’s why they put the five players up front; they are quick,” the coach told SuperSportTV after the game.
The reigning league champions largely had Denis Onyango to thank for securing the three points, with the goalkeeper having made several outstanding saves throughout the match, a performance that earned him the man-of-the-match award and plenty of praise from his coach.
Mosimane continued: “Denis saved us. His saves were crucial and Denis came to the party at the right time. He’s African footballer of the year, he needs to come at the right time.
“Kekana came, showed experience. Teko [Modise] came, he showed experience, but I must congratulate my assistants: they called the subs tonight; I never called any sub. They called the subs - it’s unbelievable.
“It’s tough times, you have to grind and make sure that you don’t concede. It’s important for us [not to concede]. It was a difficult game and we need to keep taking it one game at a time.”
The coach also admitted he had no qualms about setting up a more defensively-shaped unit in the closing stages in order to see out the three priceless points.
“The last 10, 15 minutes we played the ways Arrows always played: we sat a little bit back and you see how they struggled to come in, and we were going out on the counter - sometimes I need to copy ‘parking the bus’ a little bit,” added Mosimane.
“It’s really difficult for teams now - when we sit back - to come through, that’s why we got the breaks in the last three, four minutes.
“Zero behind,” the coach said in terms of his expectations of his defenders conceding. “We need to go on like this. Squeaky bum time.”
