Former Bafana Bafana defender Matthew Booth has told Goal he's confident of Shakes Mashaba and his charges recording their second successive victory of the 2015 Afcon qualifying campaign and their first ever over Nigeria on Wednesday.
Bafana haven't beaten the Super Eagles in any of their previous official meetings, but Booth, who worked with Mashaba at under-23 level 14 years ago, is backing the 64-year-old mentor to become the first coach to achieve that with South Africa.
"I think there's a new spirit behind this team. Everybody was surprised by the way they played against Sudan away and certainly on the back of their results against Sudan, South Africa will be backing Bafana. I certainly think that Shakes will break the Nigerian hoodoo on Wednesday," Booth told Goal.
Nonetheless, Booth admitted that Nigeria's loss to Congo Brazzaville in their opening match could make them dangerous against Bafana.
"It could absolutely make them dangerous. There could be a backlash, but it's difficult for us to predict what's the mood like in the Nigerian camp, because they do have administrative issues although it doesn't really affect players psychologically," he said.
The 37-year-old former Mamelodi Sundowns defender agreed with Mashaba that playing at home is no more an advantage because everyone expects the home team to win at all cost.
"If I remember very well, when I worked with him (Mashaba) at under-23, we enjoyed playing away from home because there was less pressure, but when we played at the Vosloorus Stadium there was a full stadium and everyone expected us to win and I think they could be taking that attitude."
Booth is however, not eliminating possibilities of Bafana failing to get all the three points in Cape Town, but he feels a point against the African champions wouldn't be bad at all.
"Generally, when you play home and away, you want to play away first. Pressure will be on us to get the three points at home. Having said, we got three valuable points away to Sudan and even if we drop two points it won't be a train smash," concluded Booth.
