Cape Town City coach Muhsin Ertugral has acknowledged the significant challenge of maintaining consistency following consecutive victories against Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

City defeated Pirates 1-0 at DHL Stadium on Wednesday, marking their second win under Ertugral, who replaced Eric Tinkler earlier this year. This victory followed a 1-0 win over Chiefs at the same venue on Sunday.  

These two victories have propelled City up the league table to sixth place with 17 points from 12 matches. They were languishing in 13th position when Ertugral took over.  

Ertugral recognizes that facing these Soweto giants can often elevate player performance, requiring less motivation from the coaching staff. However, he expressed concerns about maintaining this level of intensity in upcoming matches against less high-profile opponents.

“These two upcoming games, we are going to have a problem next week,” admitted Ertugral. 

“I know and this is one of our biggest problems – the lack of consistency.”

City will face Marumo Gallants at Dr Molemela Stadium on Saturday (15:30) followed by a match against struggling side Richards Bay next weekend.

Ertugral acknowledged the potential impact of travel and altitude on his players, as they will be flying to Bloemfontein for the match against Gallants.

“We need to talk about that and also the team is a little bit tired because they played out (of their skin) and we need to see it on Thursday and Friday because we are flying and there is only one flight, very early in the morning to Bloemfontein,” he warned.

“So, we need to put measures on how we are going to rest the team. There is a higher altitude there, if I’m not mistaken, as well as the heat. 

“We need to see how we can get the best of the boys.”

During the match against Pirates, the visitors were awarded a penalty in the 71st minute, but Patrick Maswanganyi struck the woodwork, allowing City goalkeeper Darren Keet to easily gather the rebound.

Ertugral, who previously coached Pirates, expressed his belief that the penalty decision was somewhat soft. “Penalty? I don’t know. You guys (media) will decide that,” said Ertugral. 

“But I think it was a bit soft, whatever. It didn’t go in and we stayed in the game and in the end, we had another two or three clean chances. 

“We scored one and one of our youngsters just needed to stop the ball and it didn’t happen.

City ultimately scored the winning goal through Darwin Gonzalez three minutes later.  

“I’m proud of the boys,” Ertugral concluded.