AmaZulu scraped past Kruger United in the Carling Knockout Cup, but Arthur Zwane was far from happy, and Thando Ngwenya felt the full force of it.

Usuthu advanced to the next round thanks to a late Hendrik Ekstein penalty in a 1-0 win at Mbombela Stadium on Sunday. But after the game, Zwane made it clear that the performance was nowhere near good enough, and he explained why his in-form striker was pulled off.

According to Zwane, Ngwenya thrives on early goals, and he had the chances to get one. He didn't take them.

"He had about two early in the game that… the first one was flicked into his path and he reacted slowly. The second one also, his reaction was very, very slow," Zwane said.

The coach also pointed to a third moment where the striker was outsprinted by a defender. He went on to give a lesson in what Ngwenya should have done.

"You can't push the ball and expose the ball to your right when the defender is coming from the right side. Put it to your left and put your body across. If the defender commits, you can get a foul. You understand what I'm saying? So those ones, you take them, you make them count."

Zwane did not hold back on how the striker's afternoon affected the whole team.

"He was not himself today. He was losing the ball cheaply. One of the reasons also we couldn't come out is one player that holds the ball well for us to join in and attack the space. But today we couldn't even manage to exploit the space where they were open for us, because now you are giving them the momentum they want."

He added that AmaZulu had a golden spell in the first half that they wasted.

"There was a moment of fifteen minutes where we could have scored three goals, and now Thando was letting us down."

Zwane did soften the blow, insisting his striker was trying hard and that the problem was bigger than one player.

"He's trying his level best," said Zwane. "It's not only him that was not at his best today. The reaction speed was… yeah, we were sluggish, man, but the defence, the guys defended very, very well."

It was a tough day for the striker, but AmaZulu are through, and the defence earned praise.

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