TS Galaxy coach Bernard Parker felt his side’s 2-2 draw away at Siwelele on Sunday was a fair result as the visitors twice came from behind to share the spoils at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.
Both sides began their new Betway Premiership season in a dramatic encounter with a horror error giving Siwelele the halftime lead and another comical mistake seeing their young goalkeeper Sipho Maseti being sent off near the end of the game.
“I think it's a fair result. That’s the reason why it was entertaining; it was end-to-end,” said Parker.
Galaxy’s defensive midfielder Ntandoyenkosi Nkosi played a suicidal back pass to his goalkeeper Sipho Maseti, who had no time to clear and kicked against Siphesihle Jeza to give Siwelele the lead.
“With any youngster, there will be mistakes,” the Galaxy coach said of the early setback.
“As long as they learn from the mistakes, so it's just for us to make sure that there's a technical team to encourage him, and to make sure that he does not commit such mistakes again in crucial, crucial moments, and in crucial matches like this.”
Galaxy equalised from a penalty early after the break before veteran Vincent Pule had the home side back in front.
Then came a bad misjudgement by Siwelele’s new Botswana international goalkeeper Goitseone Phoko, who came out for a free-kick but then hesitated and allowed Veluyeke Zulu to make it 2-2.
CONFUSION LEADS TO RED CARD
In the final minute, Galaxy’s young goalkeeper Maseti picked up the ball well outside his area, wrongly assuming the lines left over from previous rugby matches were the edge of his penalty box when he instead was metres outside and got given a red card.
Parker was less upset about that than he was about some aspects of his team’s play.
“We didn't take much control where we needed to take control and manage the game. Also, on the other end, our aggression wasn't how we wanted it to be and how we expected the players to be proactive in winning the ball.
“We did create chances, and it is expected of us to convert those chances. If we could have just minimised a few mistakes, I think the result would have been better.
“I'm sure my good friend, (Siwelele) coach Lehlhohonolo (Seema) would also say the same for his team, but I believe it's a good way to start the season in terms of how we conducted ourselves,” Parker added.
The former Bafana Bafana striker was appointed coach of Galaxy in the pre-season after acting as interim coach when Adnan Beganovic was fired in April.
“Overall, for me as starting the season as the head coach, I would say it is an okay way to start, but overall, I'm just happy with the players’ performance,” Parker added.