Sekhukhune United’s new coach Paulus Masehe said this week’s firing of Eric Tinkler had not proven disruptive and was not the cause of their 3-1 loss at Stellenbosch in Friday’s Betway Premiership clash.
Tinkler was reportedly dismissed on Tuesday, although the club made no announcement, and Masehe was appointed as caretaker until the end of the season, with confirmation only coming when he was named coach on Friday’s team sheet.
Sekhukhune had chances in the game, which was played in driving rain at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town, but in the end suffered defeat to remain fifth in the standings and see their hopes of a third-place finish this season slip further away.
Masehe said the departure of Tinkler was not disruptive because he had looked to continue where the previous coach left off.
“To a certain extent, I needed to add a little bit of my own profile into the team and also my own personality into the team.
“But that’s something that needs time. It cannot be just done within four days. You always need maybe two weeks or so to be able to install it in the team, but the response from the players, from the attitude perspective, was good, and I'm very happy.
“The boys really did work extremely hard and tried really hard to come back into the game,” said Masehe.
He did admit Stellenbosch were value for their win, however.
“I think they played the conditions much better than us. We made crucial mistakes while trying to build through the phases, whereas they didn't even try.
“They always bypassed, and tried to get behind us, and to try and put us under pressure, and it worked out for them.
“But I still believe that we managed to create very good chances that we could have converted, but unfortunately, we couldn't. And from their side, there were more clinical than us. It was a very good game from both sides. It's just that they were more clinical than us,” Masehe added.