Pirates shift focus to Swallows after Chiefs loss

Orlando Pirates assistant Sergio Almenara says the Buccaneers have put the painful loss against Kaizer Chiefs behind them and are now focusing on their next game against another Soweto rivals Swallows.

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Pirates are set to meet the Dube Birds at the Dobsonville Stadium on Friday.

Bucs are still reeling from their 1-0 loss to Amakhosi over the weekend.

Riveiro was in charge of things in the absence of the head coach Jose Riveiro, who was serving a suspension, admitted to be feeling the pain of losing the Soweto derby to Chiefs.

“It’s painful for the fans and we understand that, it is painful for the players and for us (coaches). The only thing that we can do is to prepare very well in the week to be ready to face Swallows. We are taking it week by week, we are trying to prepare for the next game (against Swallows) and that’s all,” said the Pirates assistant.

Explaining more on what transpired in the loss to Chiefs, Almenara felt they were hard done by the red-card to captain Innocent Maela, who was sent off with 20 more minutes remaining before full-time.

Almenara also explained why they opted to sacrifice one of their star players Thembinkosi Lorch after Maela’s dismissal.

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“We needed to readjust because of the red card of ‘Inno’ (Maela), we needed one centre back and then we needed some fresh legs because we were going to spend a lot of time in the low block,” he added.

The Buccaneers clash against Swallows will be vital for them to win in order to keep their place at the top three in the log standings and Riveiro will back on the bench. At the moment, the Sea Robbers occupy third place with 31 points, but they are level with fourth placed Richards Bay FC and fifth place Amakhosi.