Mohafe: Pirates Were Getting Easy Fouls
Polokwane City coach Phuthi Mohafe has voiced his displeasure with Orlando Pirates’ goal in their narrow 1-0 defeat to the Soweto giants at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in their Betway Premiership clash on Saturday.
Rise and Shine fell short to Nkosinathi Sibisi’s second-half strike after goalkeeper Brian Okoth misjudged the ball from Kabelo Dlamini’s free-kick and spilt it into the path of the Bucs center-back, who netted his second league goal of the season.
With the defeat, the Limpopo-based outfit has now lost five of their last 10 league outings, with three draws and two wins in the process. City’s continental aspirations are slowly diminishing with a dip in form in recent weeks.
In the wake of conceding maximum points to the Buccaneers, the 51-year-old tactician feels the Jose Riveiro-led team shouldn’t have left the North victorious, suggesting that their goal was controversial with the officials against them in that instant.
“We conceded from a set piece, but my worry is how many set pieces did we have and how many have we afforded because if you check every player of Pirates when he goes down, it’s a foul. So, even that foul, I was not moved to say it’s a foul,” said Mohafe.
“But it was given, and it’s not my job – my job is to coach my team, and my team should win matches. When that ball was kicked, one of my players was kicked on the flight of the ball. The goalkeeper catches the ball he drops it. I’m not sure if he was bundled into dropping the ball or not.
“I’m not sure about the goal, but it was given, so it’s a goal, and there’s nothing that we can do; we cannot reverse that.”
Mohafe’s charges will take on Sekhukhune United in their next Betway Premiership match at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in a bid to return to their red-hot form in the league, which once saw them rub shoulders with the top teams higher up the table.
In their three meetings in the South Africa top-flight division, the two sides have played out to three consecutive draws, with neither team able to claim the Limpopo bragging rights.
The last encounter ended in a 1-1 stalemate in January.
City will be determined to reclaim their spot amongst the league’s elite as they are currently in sixth place after 24 matches played with 34 points collected – level with Babina Noko on points. The 2022/23 Motsepe Foundation Championship winners are two points off a CAF Confederation Cup spot.
