Chippa United interim coach Siyabulela Gwambi has expressed satisfaction over his player’s performance despite losing 2-1 to Mamelodi Sundowns in Monday’s DStv Premiership game.
The Chilli Boys gave a good account of themselves but failed to take their chances. Themba Zwane put the visitors in front from the spot before Chidi Kwem levelled for Chippa United.
Peter Shalulile continued his impressive form this season and scored the winning goal as Mamelodi Sundowns extended their lead at the top of the league table to six points.
Speaking with SuperSportsTV, Gwambi said: “I think we executed our plan very well, we knew that they were going to look at wide spaces, overloading on one side and in some instances they will look at pushing their wing-backs forward.
“So our approach was to tell our wingers not to go forward, wait for them to build up and then we start committing.
“I think we executed the plan well we’re just unfortunate to concede a penalty.
“Now it immediately put us under pressure but overall we had a much improved second-half, this is the time where we have to motivate more, tell the guys to always believe.
“So we had a much improved second half that we can build on from here,” he said.
“We were leaving too much space and gaps for them to play, hence I said in pre-match talk that there is individual responsibility that we tasked the players to do, so we had to revive and remind them.
“‘This is what we discussed and this is what we planned, we must not be dragged by any movement that is made by the Sundowns players’, now you will find that Sundowns had players who were moving and we were not following the runners.
“So we managed to sort that out at half-time to say when one player goes, we’re not short [because] at times we were marking one player and we’re three.
The result further condemned Chippa United to 15th place on the league table with a mere 17 points from 22 games.
As it stands, the Chilli boys are under threat of relegation but their fortunes could change for the better if they manage to put a positive run of games.
Away from league action, Chippa will turn their attention to the Nedbank Cup where they take on Pretoria Callies in the semi-final of the competition.