Banyana arrived in Johannesburg this morning after losing their third-place playoff against Ghana in Limbe this past Friday.
The national women's team also came fourth in the competition two years ago in Namibia.
Ellis said: “When you come to a tournament you come to win it, the expectation was just that for all of us. If you watched our games you will realise that we create chances up until the last minute. I think it was just lack of composure in certain situations, it seems everybody is rushing.
"When you are in such high pressure situations you need calm heads which we didn’t have. I have to sum it up in one line – goals win matches. And if a match was decided on creating opportunities we would win hands down. We would have loved to go back home wearing medals but it did not happen.
“But I am very proud of the girls, they never gave up. At times we didn’t minimise our mistakes, we got undone at three set-pieces against Ghana, which is poor defending, and on the other hand when we were in similar positions we coundn't finish. It is the same old story that we create many chances but we don’t take them and it is something we have to seriously work on. We create enough to win matches.”
Ellis added that the quality of football has improved at the showpiece.
“This was one of the better tournaments I have been in, not just with the organisation but also the standard of football - the quality was high. The talent displayed showed that Africa is improving, hopefully it will not happen just in these tournaments but in the FIFA tournaments. We can take the quality that we have and not only only participate in the FIFA tournaments but also go beyond the quarter-finals and maybe even win them.”
The former Banyana skipper went on to congratulate her friend and Nigerian counterpart Florence Omagbemi for winning the tournament in Yaoundé. The Super Falcons successfully defended their title with a 1-0 victory over Cameroon in the final this past Saturday.
Ellis and Omagbemi faced off as captains of their respective countries in 2000 at the African Women’s Championship. The match ended in chaos 16 years ago when fans rioted and Nigeria was awarded a victory.
“We have come a long way with Florence and it gives me great pleasure and a sense of relief to see her to lift the trophy. She has now done it as a player and a coach, that is a remarkable achievement. All this does is that it gives the rest of us hope that with a lot of hard work and support, we can also reach these highs. Congratulations to her, I am so happy for her considering also that she had to us to get to the gold medal. All the best in your future endeavours,” concluded Ellis.
Nigeria have now won the competition 10 times (1991, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2016).
Banyana results at 2016 AWCON:
South Africa 0 – 0 Zimbabwe
Cameroon 1 – 0 South Africa
South Africa 5 – 0 Egypt
South Africa 0 – 1 Nigeria (Semi-final)
Ghana 1 – 0 South Africa (3rd/4th Place Play-off)