Staff Reporter.
Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker expressed pride in his team’s performance and praised his players’ application despite an emphatic 3-0 loss to champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the DStv Premiership on Wednesday.
It was a first defeat of the season for the Winelands club, who ran head-long into a dominant Sundowns and were behind after just 90 seconds when Neo Maema got the first goal of the game.
“Obviously, you know, after 3-0 loss, you always sort of look and reflect on what went wrong. There were a couple of things I think we can take from the game, lessons we learned,” said Barker.
“When you play a team of Sundowns’calibre, to concede as early as we did, a lot of your planning and a lot of your thinking around the game gets derailed. To allow them to have got that early goal put us on the backfoot. They just looked sharper, they outclassed us in many sorts of situations.”
Barker says he asked his players to show courage and bravery at halftime when they were already 2-0 down after Peter Shalulile added a second.
“I felt for about 25-30 minutes of the second half, I thought we played probably our best football of the game. But again, slight error from us the third goal, and then the quality that Sundowns punished us. And that was obviously the end of the game,” said Barker of the third goal scored by Sundowns’ new boy Marcus Allende.
“After the game, I told the players I was still proud of what we tried to do. We could have capitulated and slacked off and just sort of sat deep. But we came out and we showed character, we showed personality. We showed a desire and a will to continue to try to do the things that we try to do,” he added.
DSTV Premiership Results
Royal AM 1-0 Maritzburg United
Golden Arrows 1-0 Amazulu
Chippa United 0-0 TS Galaxy.
Orlando Pirates 1-0 Marumo Gallants
Supersport United 1-0 Richards Bay.