Polokwane City coach Vukusic happy with his team fifth finish

Polokwane City players were lauded by their coach Jozef Vukusic after finishing fifth on the standings in one of the more remarkable achievements of the Absa Premiership campaign.

City went down 3-0 to Orlando Pirates on the last day of the season on Saturday but Vukusic was satisfied with the side's performance throughout the season.

“We achieved the best result in the history of the club and the most points ever (44) and I see the season as very positive.

“I think my team played right up to limits of their potential and that’s very important‚” said the Slovak-born trainer.

For Vukusic‚ it was also a major bonus that the squad was relatively injury free throughout the campaign.

“We didn’t get any big injuries or suspensions.

"Most of the games I could chose from all of my players. It can be a real problem if you have a season with four or five key players regularly because of injury.”

But there was no picture-perfect end to the season as unheralded City lost to Pirates away in their last league game of the campaign on Saturday.

“But in two weeks I will have forgotten about this game and rather look back on the better moments of the season.

“The home team dominated‚ especially in the first half where they created chances‚ and scored three goals.

"We made a lot of defensive mistakes but Pirates also scored very nice goals.

“But even with this result‚ I saw a lot of positive things. There were three or four young players who were brought into the team for this match and they showed talent. It was an opportunity to give them a chance‚” Vukusic added.