Ajax Cape Town coach Muhsin Ertugral insists the pressure of the game forced his side into making the wrong decision in crucial areas, writes DYLAN APPOLIS.
The Urban Warriors were condemned to the promotional/relegation playoffs where they will face National First Division side’s Black Leopards and Jomo Cosmos after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
Ertugral admits that his side were forced to attack Amakhosi on the counter, but were left open in certain areas which led to the visitors scoring two goals.
“Chiefs will bring the game because they have the capacity of high qualified technical players. In the first 45 minutes, we were misguided and we were not 100 per cent sure on what we were going to do,” Ertugral said.
“If we were open, we were afraid because they [Chiefs] were coming into really good spaces to stop us in my opinion.
“Second half we were on the front foot every time but we needed to be careful on the counter-attack. We lost the ball in situations where we shouldn’t have and that was from the counter, corner, counter again and then a goal.
“From a professional point of view, if you are not motivated to be there where we are then you in the wrong place.
“We need to put the dust away. We all emotional in the dressing room which is why I preferred to say nothing.
“The pressure makes teams make the wrong decisions, but we’ll get better at that and see what happens when we travel to Orlando,” he concluded.