Manchester City manager Mark Hughes and his England midfield star Gareth Barry, have come out in support of South African soccer fans blowing their vuvuzelas.

Speaking after beating Kaizer Chiefs 1-0 at Durban's Absa Stadium on Tuesday night in their second match of the Vodacom Challenge series, Hughes said he had no problem with vuvuzelas.

In fact the City boss liked it: "The atmosphere created by the local fans in both our game splayed in South Africa so far has been fantastic.

"The whatever you call them (vuvuzelas) add to the passion of the game here. It is a unique sound.

"I said before we came to play in South Africa I was expecting plenty of passion from the fans, win or lose, and I was dead right.

"The spirit here in the crowd has been brilliant and the local fans are really a tremendous part of the South African game."

Players and foreign media were highly critical of the vuvuzelas, unique to the South African soccer scene, during last month's Confederations Cup.

A number of foreign journalists went as far as to demand that FIFA President Sepp Blatter ban the "noisy trumpet."

But Blatter stood firm and said the vuvuzelas were part of the traditional South African game and that under no circumstances would he consider banning the vuvuzelas.

Blatter in fact said he welcomed the noise and the passionate way it was used by local fans, adding much more atmosphere to the Confederations Cup.

Hughes said: "I enjoyed the experience of hearing the vuvuzelas we heard about in the Confederations Cup, and as far as I am concerned they add to the excitement of the crowd."

Barry, who was signed by Hughes from Aston Villa for about R225 million recently, agreed with his manager.

"What I and the other players really enjoyed was the noise and passion created by the fans.

"Sometime when teams play in friendly matches in the pres-season they are flat because the crowd does not respond.

"What I have experienced here is the opposite. The crowd here have been different class and we look forward to a brilliant final where we want to crowd to make as much noise as possible."

City were beaten 2-0 in their first Challenge fixture at Polokwane at the weekend and play the winner of the Chiefs-Pirates Soweto Derby to be staged in Port Elizabeth on Thursday night (8.15pm) in the final at Loftus on Saturday afternoon (3pm).