My players probably suffered from stage fright – Maduka
In his post-mortem of Bloemfontein Celtic’s 1-0 loss to Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup final on Saturday night, Phunya Sele Sele coach John Maduka suspects that his players suffered from stage fright against the experienced Masandawana players.
John Maduka coach of Bloemfontein Celtic (Photo by Gallo Images)
Sundowns’ winning goal was scored by Gaston Sirino to collect their third piece of silverware this season, claiming their first domestic treble under head coach Pitso Mosimane.
READ: Sirino strikes as Sundowns seal treble with Nedbank cup win
“At training they looked good and looked confident and most of our talks were for them to play like any other game and play their normal game. It could be that maybe the stage was big but it is one of those things where you go through these kinds of mistakes,” said Maduka.
“Unfortunately sometimes you learn the hard way and that is what happened. We didn’t pitch. If we played the way we normally play, I think we would be talking a different story because even in those patches that we tried to play, we created several chances that we could use to punish Sundowns,” he added.
However, Maduka says he is proud of how his team has performed in the Biologically Safe Environment where they only lost this game to the Brazilians.
“I am so proud of the boys and it was a process for us to get to this stage. It is sad that we lost the game but there are a lot of positives that we take going forward. I am proud of the boys who play football under these circumstances, they did well and we are looking forward to the coming season,” said the Celtic mentor.
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