Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane felt Ashley Du Preez's goal was wrongly disallowed against Orlando Pirates, as they missed out on a spot in the Carling Black Label Cup final.
Chiefs lost to Pirates on penalties after a goalless draw at the FNB Stadium, but Du Preez had a goal flagged for offside in the closing stages.
Read: Pirates pip Chiefs to Black Label Cup final
"Ja, look it was never going to be an easy one but I think the boys you know they gave their best, considering also that the field was very heavy you know," Zwane said on SuperSport after the game.
"But they gave their best, nevertheless I think we scored a goal that was denied, I think for me would have won this game, though I don't think the game was balanced.
"I think as soon as we brought in Samkelo Zwane, Mduduzi Shabalala, then we started playing a little bit because we were on the ball quite often which was very important for us.
"And that's also when that goal came and ja, penalties are a lottery, it can be anybody's game when it comes to penalties but ja it's one of those things."
Kgaogelo Sekgota also had a big chance clear on goal in the first stanza and Zwane went on to bemoan that chance as well.
"Most definitely, Sekgota if he buried that one, then with the goal that was disallowed I think could have been a different story altogether," he went on.
"Yes, the boys again I must give them credit, they did very well and well done to Pirates as well."
Chiefs had Njabulo Ngcobo playing out of position at right-back in the line-up voted by fans and Zwane explained that they could have played Njabulo Blom in that position but he was ruled out with illness.
Amakhosi introduced Dillan Solomon early in the second stanza and Zwane says that's when they found their balance right, as Pirates target that area.
"Look we had to obviously play players in their rightful positions you know, unfortunately in the starting eleven we only had Njabulo Ngcobo who can play on the right," he said.
"We couldn't play 'Tower' (Eric Mathoho), we couldn't play (Sifiso) Hlanti or any of the guys, if Njabulo Blom was available we could maybe move Blom to the right and then 'Mapholoba' into the midfield.
"Unfortunately Njabulo (Blom) was sick, he was not available for this game, so now we had to come up with another plan and the only plan I could play was to play Mapholoba and you must have seen when we brought on (Dillan) Solomons on the right (Monnapule) Saleng was quiet, he was nowhere to be seen," he carried on.
"But yes we understand that in that case Njabulo (Ngcobo) was playing in a position he was not comfortable, we wanted to push him to the central pairing with Tower (at half-time) but he said he had run a lot, so maybe if we take him out, that's when we said okay that's fine.
"Because I felt he needed the game, the match minutes just to boost his confidence, I told him don't worry about what is happening on your side, yes they are capitalizing on that but as long as we make sure that they don't come inside and we did very well.
"We did not allow them to come inside because we blocked all the balls, we always had a blocking player," he added.
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