Stellenbosch admit Pirates caught them cold

Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker had few complaints about his side’s loss on Wednesday at Orlando Pirates, conceding they were outplayed at the start of the match.

Kamogelo Sebelebele’s first half strike saw Pirates win 1-0 and left Stellenbosch with a single point from their opening three Betway Premiership outings, struggling near the foot of the table.

“I think Pirates started the game really well. I thought the first 20-25 minutes we were struggling to deal with their movement,” explained Barker, whose side head to Polokwane next for their MTN8 semifinal second leg game against Sekhukhune United on Saturday (kick-off 6pm, live on SuperSport).

“We were struggling to deal with their balls in behind (our defence), their diagonals from the two centre backs. I thought the two centre backs’ passing range was exploiting us although our idea was not to allow them that much time and space.

"So we were just trying to encourage our players to be a little bit brave, a little bit more courageous and to put a little bit of pressure higher, but for some reason we did not, which just gave them the control of the game.

“And yeah, we were just a little bit all over the place and they deserved to take the lead, obviously, a good strike from outside the box.

“And then we slowly clawed our way back into the game and I thought then the game settled a little bit,” added the coach.

“I thought second half, we came out and the first 15 to 20 minutes was our moment to get back in the game and to get an equaliser. We applied a lot of pressure on them and we started making them defend. We started getting them to turn, we started forcing set pieces in and around the final third.

"We were probing but the last 10 minutes was just a little bit of a struggle, just hoping maybe to create an opportunity to counter attack.

“So I thought it was a game with different moments. They started really well, deserved to get the lead, the game settled. We came out in the second half but we weren't top of them.

"That's where we probably missed out on getting something from the game. And then I think the last 10 minutes, they sort of just controlled the tempo of the game and took the sting out of the game,” Barker concluded.