Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi feels his side only turned up the intensity after conceding the opening goal against Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila.
The Brazilians returned to winning ways in the DStv Premiership after coming from a goal down to secure a 3-1 win over TTM at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
With the result, Sundowns opened a six-point lead at the top of the league standings on 43 points, while TTM remain in 16th place with 16 points from 20 matches.
Mngqithi admits he was angry with the way they started the game and felt that their opponents goal should’ve been disallowed for offside.
‘We played against a very awkward team today. We knew they were not going to be easy. We’re unfortunate to concede a goal in the first half, which I believe was offside but I never really saw exactly what happened,’ Mngqithi told SuperSport TV after the game.
‘And one got anxious because we also got a very clear penalty, in my opinion, [in the] first half and I was worried now this game is turning south when they scored a goal I strongly believed was an offside.
‘But, nonetheless, the boys applied themselves, they worked very hard. It’s always not nice not to keep a clean sheet. For a team of our standards, that one goal makes us to feel bad but one must say the application of the team was much better.
‘We were a little bit angry as coaches that we started to put a lot of intensity in our play, immediately we conceded a goal then the question is why don’t we start in that intensity because immediately we conceded a goal everybody could see that now we want a goal.
‘Then the question is: why didn’t we want a goal before we conceded?But, when you have won the match it cancels out most of these things, but we got a lot of work to do to keep the team hungry, the team humble, to kill a little bit of arrogance that might be creeping in and make sure we still apply ourselves fully for every match.
‘Because you get three points for every other match that you are playing in the league. But so far I was impressed, defensively the group played well. Offensively we created some good moments. But I still believe we can do better than this,’ Mngqithi concluded.