Banyana Banyana coach Augustine Makalakalane has attributed the fairytale run that the South Africans enjoyed at the 6th African Women Championships held in Equatorial Guinea to a collective approach from his team.

Banyana surprised many by finishing top of the Group of Death, featuring Ghana, Tunisia and Nigeria. They then massacred Cameroon 3-0 in the semi-finals before falling 2-1 to the host nation in the final.

"We had a good team spirit going into the tournament," states Makalakalane.

"The formula towards the success that we enjoyed at the tournament was that we prepared for the whole tournament and not just one game. We were very much collective in our approach to the games that we played. In every game, we adjusted well, changing our style to counter what the opponent was throwing at us.

"After we won our opening two games and were guaranteed top spot, I then rested key players for the last match against Nigeria.

"Even without some key players we were still good enough to create more chances than our opponents though we lost that game. We were genuinely industrious in every game that we went to," he reflects.

Though Banyana finished runners-up on the continent they didn't return home empty as they won the Fair Play award for having collected the least number of yellow during the tournament.

Brazilians Ladies striker Noko Matlou's six goals were enough to win her the top goal scorer award which she shared with Nigerian captain Kike Ajayi.

"The tournament was well organised and proved a surprise package in that all the big guns were eliminated along the way. I saw that a lot of teams played an organised with the overall standard of football having improved immensely. You could see that all teams employed tactics, instead of just haphazard play," says the former Mamelodi Sundowns player.

Makalakalane - currently in Potchefstroom with the Under-20 team at the Zone Six Championships says he has now set the target towards preparing for the 2011 World Cup.