AmaZulu FC co-coach Arthur Zwane has hailed the importance of midfielder Hendrick Ekstein, who was on the score sheet as the side collected their first win of the season against Chippa United on Tuesday.
Usuthu registered a 2-0 win over Chippa at Moses Mabhida Stadium thanks to first-half goals from Ekstein and Ngema, both assisted by Rowan Human.
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The Durban-based outfit were reduced to 10 men when Abbubaker Mobara received his marching orders in added time, but by then, the result was beyond all doubt.
For Ekstein, it was a second consecutive goal, after he scored in a 2-1 defeat to Orlando Pirates.
"If you look at Pule's impact from the two previous games, you must have seen how important he is to the club," declared Zwane.
"Unfortunately, he comes from a long lay-off. We needed to manage him because we don't want him to break again. We don't have a player of his calibre right now and we are trying to get the youngsters up to his level, in terms of penetrating, in terms of reading the game, so we can have a clear identity, where we have players like for like (similar players).
"So that when a player like Pule comes out, the players that comes on give us the very same energy and understanding of the game.
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"At one stage, we wanted to take him out because we were afraid that what if something would happen to him? But we said we still have enough time. But you could see his energy levels were already depleted, he was already battling.
"But because of his experience as well, we said: 'No, hang in there. As long as you can be able to keep the ball for us'.
"He managed to do that because we wanted to keep him on the field for that. It was very important for us, especially towards the end of the game, to keep the ball and frustrate the opponent and he did that very well," added the former Kaizer Chiefs winger.
The win takes Usuthu up to 15th on the Betway Premiership log table with one win from five.