JOHANNESBURG - Orlando Pirates have “half a product” at the moment and are working towards being the finished article, said coach Micho Sredojevic on Wednesday night following their narrow 1-0 defeat to log leaders Bidvest Wits.
The Buccaneers came unstuck when they hosted the Clever Boys in an Absa Premiership clash at Orlando Stadium, substitute Haashim Domingo’s shot deflected by defender Gladwin Shitolo into his own net to hand the visitors a third successive league win.
But in defending his team’s performance, where they had the majority of the ball possession throughout the 90 minutes, Sredojevic insisted the Buccaneers were not going to hit form overnight.
“We don’t have a magic wand,” he said post match. “I believe in the process, the work we are doing and the players we have. For now we have half a product. We dominate, but that domination does not (yet) bring us the results.”
Wednesday night’s loss was like a dagger to the Pirates supporters after they watched their team knocked out of the MTN8 quarterfinals by SuperSport United at the same venue last weekend. There was a huge expectation to redeem themselves against Wits, and there is an overall anticipation that they have to go one better than the previous season, in which they finished runners-up to Mamelodi Sundowns in the league race.
“It’s normal when you have a long season ahead of you to enter moments of setbacks like losing as we have done tonight. We have unfortunately accidentally lost this game. It’s a slight setback. We don’t have a crisis of performance,” Sredojevic said.
Pirates travel to the Free State on Sunday to face Bloemfontein Celtic, who have won their opening two Premier League matches.
@superjourno