The victory ends Bafana's six match losing streak but will not

give head coach Joel Santana any peaceful nights sleep in the near

future as he works towards building a competitive side to compete

at the World Cup finals on home soil next June.

Madagascar were the victims of two poor refereeing decisions.

They had a penalty awarded against them which was saved by

goalkeeper Hector Kandy penalty and then had a goal seven minutes

from time ruled out for a foul inside the Bafana penalty area. Both

were harsh decisions.

And the fact that Madagascar have not played a competitive match

in nearly a year brings this result into perspective.

There was little if nothing that could have pleased Bafana fans.

But Santana, said he was happy with the result.

"We played well in the first half but made a lot of mistakes,"

he said.

"We put Madagascar under pressure in the second half and

dominated the game from the start."

The only highlight was substitute Katlego Mphela's 64th minute

strike after the Mamelodi Sundowns forward latched onto a clever

through ball from Man of the Match Richard Henyekane - who had an

otherwise unimpressive performance - for a goal that saved Bafana

and Santana's blushes.

Madagascar arrived in the country as cannon fodder for Santana

and his side comprising only of local based players from the

Premier Soccer League. But the visitors put up a spirited show.

The match was intended to build morale in the Bafana squad after

six successive defeats and the South Africans should have made

mince meat out of their inexperienced opponents, ranked 131st in

the Fifa world rankings. Bafana are rated 73rd by the world

controlling body.

There was little urgency among the South African players and

they appeared to lack ideas, especially in front of goal.

Strikers Henyekane and Mabhuti Khenyeza failed to trouble the

visitors' defence, but they got little support.

The home side could not even take advantage of a penalty gifted

to them by Botswana referee Joshua Bondo, who pointed to the

penalty spot in the 42nd minute when he adjudged that Henyekane was

brought down by Kandy inside the penalty area.

Television replays showed that Bondo got it horribly wrong and

that the contact between Kandy and the Bafana striker was made

outside the area.

Kandy did well, however. to save Siphiwe Tshabalala's spot kick

.

The young Madagascar side were expected to make up numbers but

did not look out of place against their far more experienced

opponents, who appeared merely to be going through the motions.

After the break Mphela made a difference and Bafana started to

show some urgency which was rewarded when the striker netted his

eighth international goal to spare his side's blushes