Stellenbosch FC coach disappointed with the results

Stellies coach Steve Barker was disappointment with his side’s 2-0 defeat on Wednesday at Athlone Stadium against Lamontville Golden Arrows.

The record of Six games unbeaten for stellies were broken yesterday after Siyanda Mthanti and Lungelo Nguse scored goals for the away side.

Barker revealed that they are all shocked by the outcome of the game and they must just forget about what happened and focus on their next task against AS Vita for the second leg.

He said “It’s obviously not the result we wanted to start off the season in the league, Football can bring you back down to earth and humble you, so it’s not the start we wanted.

“If I look at the match, I believe if we played this game 10 times we would probably win it more times than we lose it. We played really well in the first half, where it was maybe our execution in the final third that let us down.

“The conditions weren’t easy either with the strong winds and wet surface, which meant the ball overran or we just weren’t able to get there, and then their ‘keeper made a big, big save to keep it at 0-0.

“I think if we had got that goal, it would have forced them to come out a bit in the second half and then maybe it would have been a different story.

“I thought we played well, and it didn’t seem as though they would score against us – I didn’t have that feeling – but we gave away a softish goal and then, chasing the game, we got exposed at the back for their penalty.

Barker went on to emphasize that he didn’t expect to loose the game with such a margin score without scoring a consolidation goal.

He said “I wouldn’t say I’m pleased with our performance, but it didn’t warrant the two-nil loss.

“It puts us back down to earth and we need to get over this as quickly as possible and learn very quickly. We are on a learning curve with the club fighting on all of the fronts this season so it is important that we learn and move forward from this.

“We are still positive, we’ve played seven games and won six, and we have a big game lying ahead on Sunday away to AS Vita. It doesn’t help to dwell on this loss. We have to focus on that game, and the big derby game in our next league game next week Wednesday.”

The maroons are heading into the second leg of CAF Confedaration Cup with a comfortable lead of 2-0.

BY LUCKY SEANEGO