Richards Bay were beaten by a much stronger side as they went down 4-1 to champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the Betway Premiership on Saturday night, admitted coach Ronnie Gabriel after the game in Pretoria.
It ended a five-match unbeaten run for the coastal side and saw them drop from eighth to 10th place in the Betway Premiership.
“We felt coming into the game, we were confident, coming off some good results, some consistent performances,” explained Gabriel.
“We felt early on that we managed to even things out but then we gave away cheap goals. It's unlike us to concede this type of goal. I felt that we could have been a little bit more miserly, defensively, not give away those types of goals, because against a quality Sundowns team, when you concede the way we conceded, it’s going to be very hard for us to come back.
“We came back, we got one back, we brought it back to 2-1 and before halftime we conceded a penalty. Then we had our backs against the wall for a while. “
Sundowns were 3-1 up at halftime through Tashreeq Matthews, Malibongwe Khoza and Iqraam Rayners’ penalty.
“We had to come back in the second half, regroup, try to push the line higher, try to play the game in Sundowns’ territory, try to press them higher up the pitch, play off the break attack,” Gabriel said.
“But then we got caught out with a sucker punch with the ball behind our back four, and we conceded the fourth goal.
“But in terms of the display itself, if we look at it holistically, possibly Sundowns wanted it a little more than us, and going forward, we'll have to look at where we went wrong. Look at the errors, because from the outside, it looked like it was the minor details that let us down.
“It was not tactical discipline because they weren’t cutting us open or breaking us down the middle. It was more the technical ability in the smaller spaces where we failed to contain the counter-press,” he added.