Cape Town coach Muhsin Ertugral said both he and his players panicked in the last 15 minutes and were not able to find their way back as they lost at home to Marumo Gallants in the Betway Premiership.
Frank Mhango’s seventh-minute breakaway goal handed the Bloemfontein-based side a 1-0 victory at the Athlone Stadium on Saturday and valuable points in the battle against the potential of relegation.
It also extended City’s winless run to 10 games and left them in 10th spot in the standings, six points off a top-eight place.
“In the end, you don't know what to say,” said Ertugral after the game.
“We all panicked in the last 15 minutes. Even myself after all those years in this business, changed out of our concept, what we had planned, and that changing was done based on hope, but as the game went on, we went even more down.
“But when you come to the party, but you don't score, they get one counter then score, what is it you can hold on to?” asked Ertugral.
“You need to experiment to find solutions but the experiments, actually, didn’t bring you something. In the second half, we tried with two strikers, putting Darwin Gonzalez up and (Aprocius) Petrus a little more up but it didn't work as well.
“I was trying to find a way to unlock them and made even more changes. In the 15 minutes, we on the bench were panicking and the boys were panicking because they are under tremendous pressure,” he added.
Ertugral said he would first look to himself to try and turn things around with seven matches left for City in the season.
“I need to get my mind a bit clear and help the boys, who are totally devastated at the moment in the dressing room, yeah.”