AmaZulu coach Craig Rosslee insisted the relegation battle was still far from over despite coming away with all three points from their latest Absa Premiership outing on Wednesday.

An 81st minute goal by Ayanda Dlamini steered Usuthu to a narrow 1-0 win over Bloemfontein Celtic at the Moses Mabhida Stadium with victory moving the Durban side onto 28 points, four clear of the drop zone.

“We are still involved in a dog-fight with the relegation battle,” Rosslee said afterward. “The fact of the matter is we’ve targeted getting three points in our home games…we achieved that objective tonight and don’t want to look too far ahead.

“The objective is to make sure the club survives in the PSL, it keeps its status. We know there’s 15 more points to play for, there’s obviously that magical target, but we just got to make sure it’s one game at a time and we apply ourselves accordingly for each one.”

AmaZulu appeared to have been fortunate to have come away with the win after the visitors had dominated the entire first half and the early parts of the second period too.

It was only because of some poor finishing and several strong Tapuwa Kapini saves that Rosslee’s men had stayed in the contest, although Siwelele were thankful to their goalkeeper Patrick Tignyemb for keeping them in the contest during the final 30 minutes.

“They may have had chances, but we had more effective chances,” the home coach explained. “So it’s not a fact that we were lucky, I think considering what we had and the players we had out there, we came away with a good three points.”

The winner came in the 81st minute when Dlamini rounded a defender and goalkeeper Tignyemb, who had parried a difficult save from a Thokozani Mshengu shot into the path of the striker.

Substitutes Mshengu and Kagiso Senamela had also made a huge difference after coming on.

Rosslee added: “We came into the game a bit thin because of injuries. I thought it was evenly balanced and very tactically contested.

“I think KG (Senamela) and Mshengu made a difference for us and they got us going a bit. It was an invaluable thee points.”

For Celtic boss Clinton Larsen it was a fifth consecutive match without victory and one that left them in 10th spot on the log.

“Once again the team played well without getting the result,” the coach said. “I’ve been saying that for the past few weeks now, but we’ll keep the faith. I think the team is still improving with every game.”

Larsen also felt they deserved more from the game, but refused to give up on a top-five finish.

“We dominated the first half and should have put the game to bed,” he added. “Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, but with 15 points still to play, I believe we can still finish in that top six looking at tonight’s results.”

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