TS Galaxy interim coach Bernard Parker has blamed lapse in concentration from his charges as one of the reasons the side lost the Nedbank Cup final to Durban City in Polokwane on Saturday.
The Rockets were in the lead at half-time after a corner-kick they won was converted into his own net by City forward Jean Lubumba.
But the eventual champions switched things around in the second half getting two goals, the equalizer through Mfanafuthi Mkhize and the winner via Lwamba.
Parker who was in charge of only his second game with Galaxy first team told the media after the game how the changes made by Pitso Dladla at the start of the second stanza uplifted City and also how his side switched off after the equalizer.
“We created a silly foul and then from the foul we switch off,” said Parker.
“We switch off, they play quickly, cross comes in, trying to deal with the cross, low and hard, a little bit slight deflection. I think it was from [Junior] Zindonga, and it fell to the Durban City forward.
“As you can see in that instance from the replay, it was two against six. There were only two players in the box against our six. It was just because of the deflection it put us off, 1-1 okay.
“Because I believe that our players do got the character, I believe our players, they got the mental strength I managed to make a change so that we can neutralize from the left hand side, pushing Zindonga up higher so he didn’t have a direct concentration with Terrence [Mashego].
“And then for Mbunjana to make sure that he shifts across quicker and deal with the oncoming winger, which was well dealt with.
“And then little bit of loss of concentration again, where Durban City cleared the ball, missed kick by our midfielder. I think it was [Tshepo] Kakora our midfielder, miss-clearance fell to Mbunjana, which I think we could have dealt better in terms of the second ball and the goal came.
“The goal also came with a little bit of luck. As I said, football comes with luck, where he just took a snapshot and he didn’t even connect properly, and the next thing it was loped over the goalkeeper. But it is football.
“Then I was brave enough to make a change and say, ‘okay, we add another attacker forward’, putting the three across the field, sacrificing one midfielder, so that we can try and regain back the equalizer and get back into the game.”
