Chippa United coach Thabo September owned the team’s 2-0 loss to SuperSport United at the weekend, saying the coaching tactics had not come off on the day at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.
Goals from Bradley Grobler and Christian Saile saw Chippa suffer their second consecutive away defeat in the Betway Premiership.
The Chilli Boys went down 1-0 to Stellenbosch on Wednesday before their defeat to SuperSport on Saturday.
Reflecting on the latest defeat, September said his team had fought hard, but the second-half goal from Saile had demoralised them.
“We started OK. The balance of play was good and everything that we knew was coming came,” September said.
“We managed the space behind the full-back well, but we knew crosses were not going to come in, and if you don’t pick up Bradley you get punished.
“But I think we have to take the blame as coaches and say plan A didn’t work, we experimented with Seun Ndlovu up front.
“We also told him before the game that there’s this opportunity that you play up front, but if it’s not working, we are going to play you at the back and play three centre-backs, but there is also an option of taking you out and putting in a striker.
“However, that didn’t work. We took him out going into the second half, conceding early, three minutes into the second half.
“It was already 2-0, and that killed the momentum of what we wanted to do in the second half.
“SuperSport managed the game very well, with Bradley even dropping to be in front of the left back and protecting the wing-back well, and we couldn’t penetrate, and we couldn’t hurt them.
“And the moments that we got behind we lacked a bit of quality, but the players worked hard and played hard.”
The Gqeberha-based side remain eighth on the log with 30 points from 25 matches.
To keep their top-eight hopes alive, September will have to dig deep to come up with a winning formula in the remaining three games — against Mamelodi Sundowns, home and away, and Marumo Gallants.
Chippa face Sundowns on Wednesday and on Saturday they will play Gallants, both fixtures away.
The Herald