Gunners stumble against Santos
Tumelo Mouwane | Thursday September 28, 2017 09:32
Known for their good home form, Gunners, however, stumbled at the hands of Santos, who picked their first maximum points.
Mapantsula were in total control in the first half and were rewarded when Ofentse Mmipi’s low shot thrust them ahead.
But Santos fought back and found an equaliser and the winning goal in a frenetic two minutes in the second half. Tlotlo Mmipi grabbed the equaliser before Ogomoditse Sitang gave the youthful side the maximum points.
The Peleng side coach, Itumeleng Duiker expressed disappointment at the way the match penned out.
Having played two games and collecting only a point and a goal, Duicker said his players did not play to expectation, particularly the defence.
“We missed chances. They tried but silly mistakes from the goalkeeper cost us the game. It’s still early, we have to go back and fix our errors. At least we reach the posts. Our defence lacked discipline,” he said.
Santos coach, Innocent Ranku said despite the win, they are still yet to adjust to playing in the Premiership.
“Premier league football is so quick, they use speed and close gaps. We will have to go back to training and work more on players’ speed and reaction.
“I have a young inexperienced team. We are trying to build a team for the future and we will not be impatient. Wherever they lack we will fix.
We are still looking for two to three senior players in order to add an element of experience and guidance. Our mission is just to survive. We need to survive; we will see any other challenges in the next season,” Ranku said.
Santos’ Tuesday win temporarily took them to position seven with three points from two games while Gunners were on position 12 with a point from two games. Gunners have never been in the bottom eight in the first six games in the past two seasons.