Cape Town City’s six match winning streak in the DStv Premiership came to an end on Friday away at Stellenbosch and coach Eric Tinkler said he felt they had lost he contest early.
City went into the match at the Danie Craven Stadium on a club record run of wins in the league but were undone by Anicet Oura’s 40th minute goal, which stretched Stellenbosch’s unbeaten run against City to five matches.
“I think the first 45 minutes is what killed us,” said a disappointed coach after the game. “I explained to the players that Stellenbosch, first and foremost, play with a lot of energy. They play with a lot of intensity. And most importantly, they play with a lot of aggression, looking to win their duels and the threat is going to be the ball in behind.
“And what's also going to be a threat is the second ball and we didn't deal with that. In the first half, we struggled to deal with it. And they obviously got that goal from literally a counter attack. We should have scored with a great opportunity with (Tahir) Goedeman but then we got caught in behind and we weren't strong enough or aggressive enough to win our dues. It was important to win those deals and we didn't do that in the first half.
“So we looked to try and change it up after the break and I thought it was slightly better in terms of winning those deals and picking up the second balls . But we didn't create enough of a threat in that final third as we did in the first half. Ball possession wasn't good.”
City’s top scorer Khanyisa Mayo missed a good chance and then later got sent off.
“Maybe you can use the pitch as a reason but normally our possession is a lot better. And we didn't create enough, we had one or two half chances in the second half to try and get ourselves back into the game. But yeah, that first 45 minutes is what what killed us,” Tinkler added