Johannesburg - Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler says he can’t fault his players for the effort they put in during their 0-0 draw with Marumo Gallants on Tuesday night, although they lacked the quality to bury some of the scoring chances that they created.
Albeit reaching the final of the MTN8, where they lost via the lottery of penalty shootouts to Mamelodi Sundowns, City have endured a rollercoaster outing in the league. They are 10th on the standings thanks to four wins, seven draws and three losses.
Moreover, their last two matches were disappointing goalless draws out in Polokwane with Baroka and Gallants in a space of three days. But Tinkler believes that they were the better team on Tuesday night and deserved to come out victors.
“Overall, I thought the team that looked better and looked like scoring was us. I can’t fault the guys for the effort. Definitely not. I thought the guys worked their socks off and worked very hard. What we lacked was quality in front of goal,” he said.
Despite being the better side, Tinkler believes that Gallants had chances of their own in the game. However, they were saved from conceding by some sharp goalkeeping from Hugo Marques who’s been one of their standout players.
The Portuguese-born goalkeeper reached an incredible milestone against Gallants, keeping his 100th professional clean sheet. He’s been a cornerstone for City after filling in the void left by the injured Darren Keet during the start of the season.
“I think it’s difficult for me to sit and criticise the performance. In the first 15 minutes, I thought we were very good. After the first two and four minutes, we should have scored two goals at least. We started extremely well,” Tinkler reflected.
“Our pressing strategy wasn’t working as well as it did from the offset. But at halftime we had to rectify that. However, they had one or two scares, but our goalie Hugo had to save us. But those were primarily from counter-attacks from them.”
@MihlaliBaleka
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