Crystal Lake head coach Magic Nyalungu has explained what they take away from their 6-0 thrashing by Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup last 32.
Crystal made their debut in the tournament, coming from the fourth-tier and were already 3-0 down after 11 minutes, with an own goal from Adam Khumalo, Tapelo Xoki and Relebohile Mofokeng netting.
Patrick Maswanganyi scored another goal as Pirates went to the break with a 4-0 lead, before Xoki scored again in the second stanza and Tshegofatso Mabasa netted the sixth goal late in the game.
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"It was a big game, I wouldn't put it in a sense that we completely lost, I'd say we learned. We came here as a small team, a newly-established team, gave it all against the defending champions," Nyalungu said on SuperSport TV.
"There are positives here and there, I'm proud of these boys, they tried their best, came back to the second-half much better compared to the first-half.
"So that tells you about the quality of the boys that we have. So we'll go back to the drawing board, focus on the league but we'll come back next season for the last 32 again."
The Mpumalanga-based side were much improved in the second stanza, as they created clear chances, missing two one-on-ones and Nyalungu explained how he motivated his charges at half-time.
"They needed a motivation, going into the interval four (goals down), it's a bit scary, so they needed the motivation and I gave them exactly that because it's not about how many goals they (Pirates) are going to score," he said.
"It's about us expressing the talent that we have, coming from a small village like Ximhungwe, they did exactly that. We never had a shot on target in the first-half but when we came back in the second-half, the 17-year-old wearing 17, had a one-on-one but unfortunately the goalkeeper (Sipho Chaine made an exceptional save there, so there were so many positives there," he added.