The near five-month break from league action was clearly visible, especially in the second stanza, with the players running out of steam.

Pirates coach, Josef Zinnbauer, says that he is fairly happy to take the point out of the goalless draw.

“First time, you could see it's a long time since we last played but we came more and more in the game. “In the first half, a 0-0 was okay. The second half was much better, we had chances to win the game but Sundowns always had a chance.

“It was a very difficult game for us, top players against us. Ja, in the end of the time we hit the post, with a little luck you win the game.

“I'm not 100 percent unhappy, I'm not 100 percent bad. We have the next game in three days, that's the focus now.”

His counterpart at Mamelodi Sundowns, Pitso Mosimane, is his turn said that although it was their second game since the resumption of the sport, there were lessons learnt last night.

“Lessons learnt from this game is that in the second game, you might not be as strong as you thought you were in the first game.

“Lessons learnt is that we had to substitute Mosa Lebusa because his calf was giving him trouble, and we don't want him to pull it.

“At half-time, he said, 'Coach, I'm feeling it tighten.' I said, 'Please, don't pull it. If you feel it's getting overloaded, please indicate.' And he indicated, so we took him out at the right time. It's the same thing we had with Rivaldo when we played Wits three days back.

“So, the lessons learnt is to do substitutions as quickly as possible. We've told our players, 'If you feel any discomfort or anything, you have to come out because we have five subs and we've got three chances to make them.

“You cannot be selfish because, if you get injured, when you come back, the league is finished. So, those are the lessons learnt.”

Wednesday night the action moves to the Orlando Stadium where Kaizer Chiefs will be up against Wits.

This game at the home of Pirates football kicks off at 18:00.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport