Venda Football Academy coach Joel Masutha was full of praise for his charges who took Orlando Pirates all the way to extra-time in their Nedbank Cup last 16 match on Saturday evening.
It was the Buccaneers that were ahead through Kermit Erasmus before Edmore Chirambadare pulled the visitors level and eventually forced extra-time where Thembinkosi Lorch separated matters.
For Masutha, the idea is to see his charges transfer the same spirit and resilience to their domestic campaign in the Motsepe Foundation Championship where they lie 14th on the table.
Read | Erasmus Lorch keep Bucs in NBK Cup hunt
"Ja, know it will be very much unfair and ungrateful if I complain about the players effort. This is what we expected, we wanted to test ourselves against the best and I feel the boys gave a good account of themselves. I just hope we going to put the same effort in our league games," Masutha told SuperSport TV.
Having trailed at halftime before bouncing back, Masutha admitted that they planned to play on the counter-attack after levelling by forcing the Sea Robbers to push high-up.
"No, during our analysis we detected that Pirates is a team that has been scoring early goals. So, we planned to go with the medium-block and let them come at us so that we can try and catch them on the break.
"So, I think that helped us a little bit in terms of ball retention but after 70 or so minutes that's now when we came out of our shelves and we started playing so I would say that was really a tactical plan and the boys tried their best to follow everything we asked them to do," Masutha said.
However, having levelled straight after halftime the dream for a win appeared though the coach rued the way they conceded the second goal and hoped that they would go to a penalty shoot-out.
"Of course, you know when you get a goal against such a big team it always gives you hope and as you know that the Nedbank is the cup of dreams – you start dreaming and you know we were almost there.
"But I think also the gulf in terms of experience played a role. I think also we showed a little bit of inexperience in the way we conceded the second goal.
"But I can say for me it is a bitter sweet feeling you know. I'm extremely happy with the effort and application of the boys.
"I'm just bitter at the way we conceded the second goal and we were also hoping to drag the game into penalties. It's tough luck to us and good luck to Orlando Pirates."
You must be Sign In to post and read comments.
Click here to register: Sign In