A fine start to 2018 has Orlando Pirates coach Micho Sredojevic quivering with excitement, eager for the next game to show the obvious improvement from his side this season.
Saturday's 3-1 victory over Mamelodi Sundowns was a game for the ages, a thrilling end-to-end league encounter that could have gone either way, but ended with Pirates keeping their noses in the championship hunt.
It was chalk and cheese from last season, when the Soweto giants could not buy a win and ended with their worst league position in 30 years and a humiliating 4-1 loss in the final of the Nedbank Cup.
That pre-empted a return to the club after a decade for the Serbian Sredojevic, who admits his side are a work in process but has been buoyed by good wins in 2018 over Baroka and Sundowns, both by 3-1 margins.
"I just cannot wait to get to training, I am shaking in anticipation," a smiling Sredojevic told reporters. "We are extremely motivated and there is still space within each player in each department [to improve] as we have still not played our best football.
"Since Saturday, we have seen an unbelievable injection of motivation through all of us working with the players. With the players, we know that we have a certain quality, but we don't want to be arrogant and say that we are the best."
The Sundowns result perhaps meant more to Sredojevic as it was in this fixture last season that the club suffered a record 6-0 defeat to Sundowns. He was not the coach then, but it is a symbolic affirmation of his methods and the work he is doing at the club.
Next up for Pirates is a home game against Polokwane City on Saturday, a fixture they should win on current form, even if their opponents have done the double over Sundowns in the league this season.
Incredibly the last six matches between the two sides have finished in draws, with City dumping Pirates out of the Telkom Knockout via a penalty shoot-out earlier this season after one of those.
"Every match is a new ball-game and we have the highest level of respect for Polokwane City," Sredojevic said. "In the last two games we have played, they've both been thrilling matches... 2-2, meaning they could score, we could score.
"Now we need to tighten at the back and be more effective in front of the goal and we want to continue where we stopped against Sundowns."
Sredojevic admits he is still learning what makes South African players tick and he believes it is crucial that he uses this understanding to get the best from his players, rather than try to impose on them his methods only.
"Every day I am still learning the culture, traditions, lifestyle and habits of South African players, that are different from other players on the continent and you need to adjust to them," he says.
"I cannot come from Serbia and then impose Serbian ways on South Africans. I need to be one of you and through that bring the expertise and the technical aspect that I can bring, give my best and use this as a way to take our football to another level."
For Sredojevic, returning Pirates to the African club football stage is a priority and he has two ways of doing that in the current campaign.
The first would be to finish in the top three in the league, with first and second placed clubs entering the 2019 African Champions League, and the side that finishes third going into the African Confederation Cup.
The other would be to win the Nedbank Cup, where the winners play in the Confederation Cup, with Pirates handed a tricky first round tie at home to Ajax Cape Town this year.
"Whether through the league or the Nedbank Cup, we want to play on the continent.
"You know how I am, despite coming from Europe, I count myself as an African coach," Sredojevic said.
"Africa has given everything to me and in terms of serving Orlando Pirates and South African football, and the brand that we are carrying, it is huge on the continent and we need to be playing there.
"It is our target to play next year in the CAF Champions League or the CAF Confederation Cup in order to keep promoting our brand through the continent."