Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro says the 'two accidents' in the first half put the side in trouble against Mamelodi Sundowns.
Pirates were buoyed to upset the Brazilians and narrow the gap at the top, but a brace from Lucas Ribeiro and goals from Grant Kekana and Teboho Mokoena decided otherwise.
Riveiro's men trail the irrepressible Tshwane giants by a massive nine points at this juncture and have been handed three defeats so far too.
"Disappointing with the result obviously. It was difficult to find ourselves today in this environment in both phases attacking and defending. We were not comfortable at all in the first half, two accidents put the game in a difficult space for us with the 2-0," Riveiro told SuperSport.
"We tried the second half to get closer, I think we managed to be better than Sundowns in the beginning of the second period. After the 2-1, I think the game was closer to us than them but they managed to find the net in the first occasion (thereafter) and from that moment the game was far from us.
"Like I said, the first goal was a set-piece coming from one of our players falling down, he's provoking the action, I think that's the origin of the corner.
"The second goal is pretty much the same was a situation where we are falling and was a transition that Ribeiro finished very well and from the 2-0 it was very difficult to get back into the game in a place like this."
In the end, Riveiro was gracious in defeat and congratulated his counterparts before reiterating the third goal by Masandawana killed their comeback chances.
"I think we did it in the second half, we managed to score one goal to be close to be better than them for 15 minutes but like I said before once they got the third goal obviously it was so difficult on the day.
"We took more risks, we were close to get an earlier score because we were trying to find that second goal so congratulations to Sundowns, the three points are not for us but for them," Riveiro said.