Bafana Bafana midfielder Ethan Brooks admits that he is hurt by the manner in which they were eliminated but felt the team can learn from their experience playing in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

South Africa’s journey in the World Cup qualifiers came to an end after they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Ghana in a controversial ending to their group stage qualifying round.

However, much was said about about the officiating by Senegalese referee Maguette N’Diaye after he handed the Black Stars a controversial penalty when Rushine De Reuck was adjudged to have fouled Daniel Amartey in the box.

Although their was minimum contact and players appealing against his call, the referee stuck to his official call and pointed to the spot, with Ghanian captain Andre Ayew stepping up to convert the spot-kick to send his team into the next round of qualifiers.

Brooks was in tears during the press conference at Safa House on Tuesday afternoon and he felt that Bafana were hard done by but is looking at the positive side of things as he looks to build on this experience.

“Like Ronwen [Williams], Rushine [de Reuck] and Tebogo [Mokoena] said it’s a very good squad that we have,” Brooks said at a media briefing at Safa house.

“We were really confident throughout the whole qualifiers, and I would just like to say that being one of the youngest in the group.

“I am glad that I was able to be part of this group and being able to look up to these guys.

“In terms of the game, we went out there with confidence and our coach mentioned that we should do that.

“With me being one of the youngest and one of the smallest I went out there and made sure that I did give my best and compete in every duel.

“So I did feel though with every duel the referee turned his head the other way and for me, it’s just not nice to see that.

“Giving my all doing all of that but like I said this is a good bunch of players that you know and it hurts to go out like this.

“But we will learn and grow from this.”