Pirates coach defends Hlatshwayo after costly mistake against Chiefs

A sloppy Thulani Hlatshwayo pass handed Kaizer Chiefs their first goal in the Soweto derby against Orlando Pirates and cost them badly on Saturday.

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But Pirates co-coach Fadlu Davids doesn’t want to blame the player, while at the same time admitting that the team needed to stop making silly mistakes at the back.

Pirates went on to lose the DStv Premiership match 2-1 to Amakhosi, giving Chiefs the Soweto bragging rights even though the Buccaneers dominated most of the game.

Hlatshwayo’s mistake at the back saw Keagan Dolly open the scoring for Chiefs, before Pirates responded with an equaliser courtesy of Linda Mntambo.

However, pressure at the back saw Olisa Ndah pull down Khama Billiat inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot, with Dolly stepping up to make it 2-1 to the Naturena-based outfit.

“No, you can’t point out Hlatshwayo because we had to score. We should have been two-zero up maybe in the first half. It was like that even in the Royal AM match – miscommunication that gave them a gift in the last minutes,” said Davids after the match.

“It’s not really (about) conceding shots at goal, our goalkeeper didn’t have to make a lot of saves in our last matches.

“We are really dominant when we have the ball, not really allowing opponents to get into our half.

“You can’t blame one player. It is a team effort, it is a team structure. We are doing very well defensively, but these mistakes are giving opponents silly goals.”

With the loss, Buccaneers are on 14 points from 10 games, lying in seventh place on the current log.

Now Davids will be hoping that he and co-coach Mandla Ncikazi can work on fixing the team’s defensive errors before Pirates are back in action again on 20 November, away to Golden Arrows.