AmaZulu coach Ayanda Dlamini has labeled his players as a total disgrace after they were humiliated by Orlando Pirates 4-0 in the last game of the DStv Premiership match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.
Dlamini said they were lucky that the score was four and it should have been more, counting close to eight goals Pirates should have scored.
True to Dlamini’s words, Pirates missed chances, and Monnapule Saleng should have applied a better finishing when the first half had just started.
However, Pirates took off, with Saleng setting up two goals for Thabiso Monyane and Relebohile Ratomo before netting him to see Pirates lead 3-0 in the first half.
Then Terrence Dzvukamanja set up the fourth for Kabelo Dlamini in the 80th minute as Pirates ensured finishing second spot to qualify for the CAF Champions League spot.
Before Dlamini scored, Monyane should have had the second on the night but rattled the crossbar.
“It is a total disgrace to lose the match like this,” said Dlamini. “We gave the goals away and it is disappointing, and Pirates is a good team.
“But if you look at the goals, from the first five minutes, it was clear they were all over us. They never pressed us with the ball, we just gave it away.
“We were lucky that we didn’t concede five, six or seven. We were very, very lucky to be honest. In the first minute, Saleng already had a one-on-one with the ‘keeper and did he work for it? Nope.
“You look at the fourth goal, two of our players lost the ball under no pressure and the guy (Dzvukamanja) comes from six meters away and takes the ball and scores the fourth goal. It is disappointing.”
Dlamini, whose AmaZulu side have not defeated Pirates in Durban since 2009, added that some of his players were already thinking about holidays.
“We spoke about it to say, this is not over and it’s not like we were playing for nothing,” said Dlamini.
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“We were playing for three points, we are playing for the badge, for our supporters because they deserve better to finish the season with positive results.
“But some of them were already thinking about holidays and you could see some of them because they know we are safe from relegation.”
Dlamini was the third Uuthu coach this season after parting ways with Brandon Truter in October while Romain Folz was redeployed as Technical Director last month to allow Dlamini to take over on an interim basis.
The former club’s striker only won one game out of five he was in charge of, as Usuthu finished 12th in the table with 33 points.