By Mark Gleeson BBC Sport, Port Elizabeth

Manyathela against Trinidad yesterday

It was his first game in charge after a miserable month in which he came close to losing his job.

But he looks very much in the driving seat, after two goals by Lesley Manyathela.

However, it was also thanks to a controversial penalty, which gave Bafana Bafana a win in the friendly international.

The friendly was a World Cup 2010 bid exhibition game.

Mashaba said: "After what I have been through you can understand the emotion."

Mashaba was sidelined on the eve of the prestige friendly against England last month, where he had refused to pick many of the country's key European-based players.

He was reinstated after the match, however, but admitted the experience had left him mentally and physically drained and his health affected.

After Saturday's win he received rapturous applause from the 20,000-strong crowd in Port Elizabeth, even though the result was not entirely convincing.

Manyathela scored the winner with a 71st minute penalty, but the decision from the Botswana referee Boniface Mpofu looked harsh.

Mpofu's inconsistency manifested moments later when he sent off Trinidad defender Brent Sancho for protesting the penalty.

Manyathela, the leading goalscorer in South Africa this season, had opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a thunderous shot from the edge of the area.

Four minutes later, a slip by goalkeeper Brain Baloyi set up the equaliser which was an own goal from Tony Coyle.