Cape Town City coach Tinkler impressed with Khanyisa Mayo’s debut

Eric Tinkler praised his new Cape Town City recruits Khanyisa Mayo and Angolan international goalkeeper Hugo Marques, who impressed in their debuts in the MTN8 quarter-final win against AmaZulu at the weekend.

The promising 22-year-old Mayo, son of former Bafana Bafana international Patrick, and 35-year-old Marques debuted as the Citizens dispatched Benni McCarthy’s AmaZulu 2-1 in Durban on Sunday.

“ We played Mayo as a striker today and for his debut I thought he did very well,” Tinkler said.

Mayo was signed from GladAfrica Championship side Richards Bay in the off season. 

City triumphed through goals from left back Terrene Mashego and striker Lehlohonolo Majoro with Mayo, despite having never played in the Premiership, hardly putting a foot wrong.

“When we went 1-0 up, I thought he could have been involved more actively as we struggled to find him for large periods," Tinkler said.

“But I thought his work ethic defensively was exceptional. On the ball he made one or two mistakes but that is expected, and also for the fact that he played as long as he did,  almost 85 minutes.

“I thought he coped very well in his debut and I was very happy with his performance overall.”

Marques, who joined Tinkler’s side last week as an emergency signing to plug the void left by the injury to Darren Keet, is a former FC Porto reserves shot-stopper.

A free agent after parting ways with Portuguese second division side Farense at the end of his contract last season, the Angola international showed glimpses of quality and experience although he was hardly tested by the AmaZulu attack.

“We are talking about a man who has been playing in Europe for many years. He has been playing at the highest level and has more than 1,000 matches under his belt,” Tinkler said of his 35-year-old stop-gap keeper.

“I thought his performance was exceptional. He came out for the crosses when he needed to and in the build-up phases he looked to be there to add the extra number.

“He was rotating the ball and his distribution was very good. I think he only made one mistake from his distributions.

“He came out for the crosses and there was the one good punch that I remember and then a save in the second half, very important towards the end that he had to make, and it was a very good save and that comes with the experience he has.”

Marques is City’s third goalkeeper to be signed this season following the arrival of Keet from Belgium and Bongani Mpandle from Maritzburg United.

City also signed Patrick Fisher, Katlego Mokhuoane and Nathan Fasika as they bolstered their squad for the new season.

The Citizens have been drawn against Swallows in their MTN8 semi-final but their immediate focus will be their opening DStv Premiership encounter against SuperSport United at Athlone on Saturday.

Tinkler said his team is well aware of what is needed to win the R8m cup.

“You have to beat everyone if you want to win the MTN8.

“I think the fact that we have got a home draw against Swallows, we will try and use that to our advantage.

“We are going into the game with a lot more confidence and self-belief but there are no easy games.

“You come up against teams that finished above us [in the league last season] so we are going to have to work extremely hard to make sure we go through in the semi-final.”