Maritzburg United head coach Fadlu Davids was furious with his side’s attitude in the first minutes of their 1-0 defeat Cape Town Spurs, but issued a rallying cry about his side’s survival hopes.
The Team of Choice left Athlone Stadium without any points after an early goal by Michael Morton sealed three important points for Spurs in the promotion/relegation play-offs.
As a consequence, Spurs moved to six points on the mini-log, while Maritzburg stayed on three and are now under pressure in their final two games, with Davids insisting his team likes to make life difficult for themselves.
“The goal came from our mistake and then, of course, in the end we were going for the goal and then they had some counterattacks,” he told Mpho Maboi after the match on SuperSport TV.
“The good thing is that they only scored one, so it’s still in our hands, it’s not over. We have to win our last two matches, that’s clear and goal difference will then count.
“But for us to win our last two matches, we have to focus, we have to let go of this and have serious conversations again. We like to make things difficult for ourselves.
“How we started the game today in the first 10 minutes was a total, total disaster and that’s really what we need to fix right now and then focus on the next two matches.”
Davids insisted his players need to improve their attitude if they want to safe the club’s DStv Premiership status.
“It’s the complacency in our start. Yes, we conceded from a mistake but that is all down how we started the match,” he added.
“We didn’t start the match the way we were supposed to. We knew the conditions, we knew it was going to be tough. We knew we had to win 50-50 balls, we knew had to win the duels.
“We know we had to stop crosses and conceded from a cross, a fumble and then an open goal. You can’t start the way we did and then expect to win, especially in Cape Town.
“But I don’t want us to give up, we’re going to fight. We’re gonna get the three points against Casric and then we get the three points in the next and we’ll survive.”
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Spurs next face Casric Stars, who lost their first two games, in Cape Town and could move to nine points in the mini-league with a win on Wednesday.
