Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Arthur Zwane has revealed what he said to his players at half time to motivate them going into the second half of their Soweto derby clash with Swallows FC on Saturday.
The Glamour Boys were forced to settle for a point against the Dube Birds after a thrilling 2-2 draw at the FNB Stadium in their last DStv Premiership clash of the season.
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Amakhosi opened the scoring in the 20th minute through Njabulo Ngcobo before two penalties from Dillon Solomons handed Swallows the lead, but Chiefs earned themselves a point after a late goal from Bernard Parker with five minutes left to play.
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Zwane was not pleased with his side’s performance on the day and felt that Swallows deserved the victory after they created more chances in the final third than Amakhosi.
“It’s been a difficult one [season], we made it difficult for ourselves, we started off very well for about 20 minutes we were in the game, we dictated terms,” Zwane told SuperSport TV post-match.
“You could see we can score at any given time, then as soon as we scored, actually I was even worried you know that we scored too early.
“After scoring the goal we took the foot off the pedal, now we allowed Swallows to be on top of us and you could see the way they were attacking, they could score at any given time as well.
“Bruce [Bvuma] kept us in the game. We still couldn’t raise our game because our midfielders were not working hard enough and, second half again, they had three corners in a space of 10 minutes, if not seven, eight, then you could see that something is gonna happen.
“At half time we told the players, ‘Listen, stop playing balls backwards’, you know, ‘Try to think about going forward all the time’, look at the goal we conceded that led to the first penalty.
“A player is free, he turns backwards and plays the ball, he passed their striker actually. So, those are the things letting us down in terms of games we should have collected maximum points,” he continued.
“But, to be honest, Swallows deserves it today, they created more chances than us, they could have scored more goals, fortunately for them they scored on penalties.
“I think they did well, it’s sad to see them in this situation when they are playing such good football and with some of their good players, young players as well.”