“I think for a 23-year-old guy like Evidence [Makgopa] who’s playing his first games for Pirates, it’s important to feel that we support him,” said Riveiro.
“And when I say we, I mean all of us, the coaching staff, his teammates and the fans. So it goes without saying that the atmosphere is supportive.
“We play with a lot of young players nowadays and it’s important that we protect them because we all get the benefit of that. If whoever is in the number nine position feels that we trust him, it’s going to be much more easy to score goals.
“At the same time, we are all professionals and we have to handle the heat, if you can’t handle the heat, you better get out of the kitchen.
“So we have to accept it and players try to do things as good as possible. I remember last season we had a similar situation with one of our strikers [Terrence Dzvukamanja].
“He came on with few minutes to go, we were 1-1 against Golden Arrows and suddenly he scored a goal and gave us three points, the people got quiet.
“Makgopa came close to scoring a second goal [against PLK City], so it’s a good signal that even though things were not easy for him, he continued trying. He wants to show everyone around that he’s a good player and he has the level to play for Pirates.”
