Stellenbosch down on their luck

Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker did not make much fuss over the controversial penalty which went against his side on Saturday and cost them points against champions Mamelodi Sundowns but lamented several tight calls which have gone against them in the early stages of the new Betway Premiership season.

A tug from defender Henri Stanic on Peter Shalulile looked to take place outside the box, but referee Michael Mosemeng gave it as a penalty, and the Namibian goal ace slotted home the kick on the stroke of halftime to hand Sundowns a 1-0 win at the Athlone Stadium.

“I think it turned out to be a game of two halves. I think in the first half, we just probably gave them too much respect, time, space, and it was a difficult half for us,” said Barker in his post-match analysis.

“But, you know, sometimes when you play a team like Sundowns, it's about sacrifice and working out of possession really well, and then you'll get your moments at some stage, so the unfortunate part was conceding when we did, just on the stroke of halftime because I feel had we gone into halftime level, the second half may have panned out a little bit differently and we may have got even more from the game.

“It's always about fine margins. The penalty against us was a close call … whether that's inside the box or out the box … it seemed that perhaps it might have just been outside the box, so those are the fine margins that have unfortunately gone against us in our five matches in the league,” he added.

Stellenbosch also felt they had gotten the wrong roll of the dice when they lost their opening game of the league season to Kaizer Chiefs, also at the Athlone Stadium.

New defender Siviwe Nkwali was sent off after only 18 minutes and they were down to 10 men for most of the game, eventually losing by a single goal.

“We've had a bit of a difficult start, but within all those games we've also shown that we are capable. If we didn't have a final to look forward to, it would have been a tough international break for us, but we do have something to look forward to,” Barker said of the MTN8 final against Orlando Pirates at Mbombela Stadium on September 13.

“Obviously, a lot of work still to be done in the league. The Fifa break allows us to regroup and afterwards we have to be picking up a lot more points than we have right now.”