Sundowns co-coach Mngqithi praises goalkeper Reyaad Pieterse

Mamelodi Sundowns co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi was full of praise for goalkeeper Reyaad Pieterse following the goalless draw against Swallows FC on Saturday.

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Pieterse played his first league game for Sundowns this season and he left Mngqithi quite impressed.

“I was happy with Reyaad, he played very well. He is one person who we wanted to see and I think he really gave a good account of himself. In general, I believe that everybody gave a good account of themselves even though we did not create a lot of clear-cut scoring opportunities,” Mngqithi said.

He continued: “We’ll always use the players who we feel are ready to play at that point in time and the players who we gave a chance against Swallows are those we believed could have done the job. It is just unfortunate that they couldn’t but I would not say that we were playing fringe players because most of the players who were playing are those who have played a lot except Reyaad.”

Meanwhile, Mngqithi lashed out at referee Thando Ndzandzeka and his assistants for their poor officiating during the match.

“This is one match where I feel the officials did not do their part,” the Masandawana mentor lamented.

“There were many leg breaking injuries that I saw, there were tackles that were flying all over. The first one was Lebohang Mokoena on Aubrey Modiba, another one was Thabo Matlaba on Sibusiso “Vila” Vilakazi. We also had two penalty incidents where Peter Shalulile and “Vila” were fouled in the box.

“You go to the opposite side and you see the same thing – there was a clear penalty at the end of the match that Swallows should have got. The officials have a responsibility to make sure that they protect the players and they run the game properly, but in this game I don’t think the officiating served its purpose,” he added.