Allan Freese is looking forward to his first cup final as a professional coach after Platinum Stars booked their place in the 2013 MTN8 final, where they will meet Orlando Pirates.

Stars beat Bidvest Wits 2-1 at the Bidvest Stadium on Tuesday night, securing a 6-3 aggregate victory over the Clever Boys.

In his first season as head coach at Platinum Stars, Freese is proud to have taken the team all the way to the final.

“I would like to thank the technical staff, for ensuring that we had fit players on the ground tonight,” he said after the match in Johannesburg.

“I’m happy that we could get to the final, I’m happy for the club, for the players, for everybody involved with the club.

“It means a lot for the club and for the Province of the North West, for a club and the supporters from a small town to get into the final.

Dikwena were slow starters in the match, but Freese credits their opponents for making life difficult early on in the game.

“We didn’t play the way we were supposed to play, although we got the goals. The last 10 minutes or so you saw Platinum Stars playing. Gavin [Hunt] has done his homework like every coach, so [in the first half] we were stopped from playing from the back. But once we could play from the back, then we went forward.”

Hunt believes that a lack of urgency into getting the ball into dangerous areas is what cost the Students the game.

“We didn’t deliver the final ball from wide areas like they did,” he said, “its something we have to learn at the club, we overplay it all the time, especially in the wide areas. Overplay it, overplay it, we can’t play our football like this.

“Look at them [Stars] - they put the ball twice into our box and score twice. They came into our box twice and they scored. But over the two legs they were better than us.”