Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi described the 4-1 drubbing against SuperSport United as a 'painful loss'.
Matsatsantsa ran riot as former Chiefs strikers Samir Nurkovic, Christian Saile followed by Ghampani Lungu and Siphesihle Ndlovu did the damage at a wet FNB Stadium.
The Chiefs mentor also sighted the lack of sharpness from the fact that they had limited time to prepare having been in action on Saturday in the Nedbank Cup against Chippa United.
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"It was a very difficult game, and a very painful loss. It's a game that we missed, obviously I'm not going to give excuses but they are excuses because obviously we only had two days for the players to recover and they played an exceptional match. But unfortunately as I said we can't give excuses but they are excuses," Nabi told SuperSport TV.
The loss dropped the Amakhosi from fifth to sixth-place on the table, as the defence and attack failed to carry out their duties with Gaston Sirino dismissed in the second half.
"Yes, definitely when the body or the physique is not responding than everything falls apart like a castle of cards and yes, we had conceded on the fourth minute and after 20 minutes we didn't have any reply and as I mentioned when the body is not right than definitely nothing goes well."
The former Yanga coach cautions that these kind of defeats happens to big teams the world over and they shouldn't be judged on it.
"Especially when the adversary had a week to recover and we only had two days but it doesn't take away the fact that they played a good game," Nabi said.
"It hurts, it's very painful but as I mentioned when the physique is not well, you can see we gifted them the first three goals it was just give aways.
"It happens; it happens to big teams. We must not judge the team only on today's performance."