Embattled Richards Bay coach Kaitano Tembo says one day the sun will shine brightly on his side after suffering yet another league loss to Polokwane City in the DStv Premiership match at King Zwelithini Stadium.
Despite the pun of football Gods not on their side, indeed Bay were very unlucky not to have come away with a win or at least a draw as they were the better side, especially in the second half.
In the first half, Somila Ntsundwana had a goal yawning in front of him and somehow after goalie Manuel Sapunga had parried the early shot from the former AmaZulu striker’s first shot, the ball came back to his path but failed to get it on target.
It was the same with Boikanyo Komane, who had the best chance in the second half with Sapunga to beat but again shot straight at him.
A few moments later, Letsie Koapeng got up well with a header but missed with a millimetre, leaving Tembo proud despite having played for 75 minutes with a man down.
Sinethemba Mngomezulu, in his first start for Bay, compounded the bad day in the office, getting sent off in the 15th minute with a bad tackle to Lebohang Nkaki.
“You played almost the whole game with one man short and you still create the better chances, you still the better team. What else can you ask from the guys,” lamented Tembo after the game.
“I will have to credit the players because they played very well and probably one day the football Gods will smile at us because the chances that we have been creating are unbelievable.
“You look at the game against Galaxy (where we came from behind to draw 1-1 last weekend), we had better chances but we couldn’t score. All we can do is to keep on working hard because I think the performance today is what we need to keep and work a little bit more in terms of composure in the final third.”
Rise and Shine scored through Mokibelo Ramabu at the back post, who finished off after Bay failed to stop an impressive attacker Oswin Appollis’ shot in the added time of the first half.
Following this loss, Bay remained 15th in the DStv Premiership table with just one win with six points after nine matches, having ended their winless streak of 19 games last month when they beat Moroka Swallows last month.
It doesn’t look good for Tembo as he is short of centre forwards after Mngomezulu was sent off and Ntsundwana had to leave early in the match. Justice Figuareido, who scored the winner against Swallows watched the game from the stands due to an injury.
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“I just hope that the injuries are not serious because we almost had two or three weeks before we play our next game on the 29th (October against Cape Town City),” Tembo hoped.
