Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach Dillon Sheppard says they will have to perform better in their last game of the season to seal the fourth spot against Cape Town City at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
Chiefs’ faint chance of finishing in the top three were dashed by SuperSport United, who beat Amakhosi 1-0 at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Saturday, leading Sheppard to say they were not good enough.
After the game, fans took the matter into their own hands, hurling objects at some of the players and head coach Arthur Zwane, who had to be escorted by the police on his way to the tunnel, but he was still hit underneath of the eye by the unruly fans during the ugly incident.
The loss came just days after they were beaten 2-1 last week by Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup semi-final, which had been the last chance Chiefs had to potentially end the trophy drought that stretches to eight years now.
With that gone, what was left to fight for was the CAF inter-club competition spot and beating SuperSport was going to put them back in the frame, but they didn’t.
Now Sheppard says they will rectify their mistakes to close off the season at home with a bang against City and finish in the top four.
“We have a week now to prepare,” said Shepherd, who stepped up to handle the post media duties as Zwane was hit in the face.
“But mentally and physically, we have to use the ball better. We have shown in the couple of past games that we can be really effective, use the ball well and on Saturday we didn’t use the ball well.
“We then found ourselves on the back foot to concede that type of goal. I have to re-look at it but that kind of situation is not really much of a danger and all of the sudden we make the decision and the ball goes into the net.
“We got our last game now in front of our fans, we need to show them that we really want to get fourth place.”
The last time fans similar scenes to what happened at Royal Bafokeng Stadium appeared and the fans attacked their coach, Steve Komphela at the time after they had lost a game, he was sacked immediately.
It will be interesting to see what sort of direction Chiefs will take with Zwane, with the club yet to make a statement on the ugly scenes.
