Tendai Ndoro in flying start

WARRIORS striker Tendai Ndoro got off to a flying start to the 2016 /17 ABSA Premiership season, firing a well-struck hat-trick as he inspired Orlando Pirates to a comfortable 3-1 win over Golden Arrows at Orlando Stadium last night.

Ndoro turned on a man-of-the-match performance to give the Buccaneers new coach Muhsin Ertuğral just the kind of beginning the Turkish gaffer needed in his new rein.The Zimbabwean also became the first man to score the league's first hat-trick of the season and his goals helped Pirates to take pole position at the completion of the Premiership's opening round of fixtures.

Ndoro also overshadowed fellow Zimbabwean internationals Kuda Mahachi and Danny Phiri with the later making his Golden Arrows debut on a losing note.

Ndoro opened his account by cheekily slicing the ball into the far corner then made it a brace with a firmly planted downward header in the 67th minute.

But it is his third that completed the hat-trick in style.

The bustling striker who also played alongside Mahachi and Phiri at Chicken Inn neatly side-footed the ball into the net after fooling his markers and deftly striking on the turn following some intelligent run onto the edge of the box.

Although Ndoro was stretchered off three minutes before time as some of the off-season rust took its toll, he had done enough damage to give Pirates just the kind of perfect start their doctor had ordered.

Ndoro dedicated the goals and the win to his coach Ertuğral.

"Thanks to my teammates for supporting me and we'll continue where we left off for the next game on Saturday — really we need to win.

"If you have a great coach like Mr Ertugral, what do you expect? You must play for what he wants because he has been in football for a long time and he's the best."

"He is a great man he always says I must listen to him and I will get better in my game so this is for him to say welcome to the club coach,'' Ndoro told SuperSport TV moments after been named Man-of-the-Match.

Ndoro's blistering start to the season should also be sweet news for Warriors coach Callisto Pasuwa as he monitors the performances of his players ahead of the senior team's final African Cup of Nations qualifier against Guinea in Conakry on September 3.

Interestingly, in just one game Ndoro has already scored one goal less than the leading scorer at Dynamos, Masimba Mambare who has four goals after 20 matches.

Ndoro's hat-trick on Day One of the season has also given the ABSA Premiership hopes that maybe this season their Golden Boot award winner could reach the 20 goal mark.

The South African top-fight just like the domestic Premiership has been struggling to find gunslingers who can bang upwards of 20 goals in a season.

Mahachi who also had a decent night for Golden Arrows reckoned that the Durban outfit would bounce back with the winger expressing satisfaction with their overall showing.

"As a team we are disappointed with the result, Pirates are a big club, but we saw something that we can build on.

"We have a good squad and we need to work harder.

"We are a team that likes to pass the ball around and we will go back and focus on our next game,'' Mahachi said.