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SuperSport United players celebrate their win after their Premiership match against Kaizer Chiefs at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Saturday. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/PHILIP MAETA
Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi has called for patience as his team continued to stutter out in the Premier Soccer League with a second successive defeat on Saturday night.
Amakhosi lost 1-0 to SuperSport United in their exciting match at a packed Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. Matsatsantsa bounced back from a tough week in which they were thrashed 4-0 by Amakhosi in the Carling Knckout at the same venue a week before, then lost 2-0 in the league midweek against Orlando Pirates at Orlando Stadium.
It was Chiefs’ second consecutive defeat in the league after a 2-1 loss against Mamelodi Sundowns in late September, before the break for the MTN8 final, Fifa date and Carling opening round.
Amakhosi remain in the middle of the table with six points from four matches with a mountain to climb to catch up with early season pacesetters Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Chippa United, who are already on double figures.
Nabi is asking the club’s supporters to trust the process he and his technical staff are instilling.
“The message to the fans is that we are the first ones who understand their importance because there is no Kaizer Chiefs without the millions of them,” the coach said.“Today we deeply regret not having given them the three points. But this is a project we are putting in place.
“Even last week when we scored four goals and everyone was happy, we said the project is at the beginning and it is going to have its ups and downs.It is through these difficult moments where we need their support because if they are really Kaizer Chiefs fans they need to be there in good and bad moments.
“What we promise them is that nobody is going to relax or sleep until this team gets to where it deserves to be.”
There is a short turnaround of matches and Chiefs turn their attention to promoted Magesi FC at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Wednesday.
“Another message to fans is the players know they didn’t deliver what was expected from them but in three days there is another game and we need them to support the players and not put them down.
“This is the league, it’s like a marathon and it doesn’t finish today. This was the fourth league game and it means there are 26 more matches to be played and there are a lot of points to play for.
“Wednesday is another important game for us. We need everybody to be behind the players to push them and they will show their appreciation.”
While Nabi was asking for patience, SuperSport counterpart Gavin Hunt was full of praise for his charges.
“It was always going to be tough with the week we had. They didn’t play midweek and you can see we ran out of legs in the last five to 10 days, which was inevitable, but I thought we did enough.
“We played really well in the first half and in the second half we let the game come to us and in our situation we just had to try to get the result, and that’s what we did. Everybody dug in, people playing out of position, but that has been our situation so far this season.”
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Chiefs coach Nabi calls for patience
Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi has called for patience as his team continued to stutter out in the Premier Soccer League with a second successive defeat on Saturday night.
Amakhosi lost 1-0 to SuperSport United in their exciting match at a packed Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. Matsatsantsa bounced back from a tough week in which they were thrashed 4-0 by Amakhosi in the Carling Knckout at the same venue a week before, then lost 2-0 in the league midweek against Orlando Pirates at Orlando Stadium.
It was Chiefs’ second consecutive defeat in the league after a 2-1 loss against Mamelodi Sundowns in late September, before the break for the MTN8 final, Fifa date and Carling opening round.
Amakhosi remain in the middle of the table with six points from four matches with a mountain to climb to catch up with early season pacesetters Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Chippa United, who are already on double figures.
Nabi is asking the club’s supporters to trust the process he and his technical staff are instilling.
“The message to the fans is that we are the first ones who understand their importance because there is no Kaizer Chiefs without the millions of them,” the coach said. “Today we deeply regret not having given them the three points. But this is a project we are putting in place.
“Even last week when we scored four goals and everyone was happy, we said the project is at the beginning and it is going to have its ups and downs. It is through these difficult moments where we need their support because if they are really Kaizer Chiefs fans they need to be there in good and bad moments.
“What we promise them is that nobody is going to relax or sleep until this team gets to where it deserves to be.”
There is a short turnaround of matches and Chiefs turn their attention to promoted Magesi FC at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Wednesday.
“Another message to fans is the players know they didn’t deliver what was expected from them but in three days there is another game and we need them to support the players and not put them down.
“This is the league, it’s like a marathon and it doesn’t finish today. This was the fourth league game and it means there are 26 more matches to be played and there are a lot of points to play for.
“Wednesday is another important game for us. We need everybody to be behind the players to push them and they will show their appreciation.”
While Nabi was asking for patience, SuperSport counterpart Gavin Hunt was full of praise for his charges.
“It was always going to be tough with the week we had. They didn’t play midweek and you can see we ran out of legs in the last five to 10 days, which was inevitable, but I thought we did enough.
“We played really well in the first half and in the second half we let the game come to us and in our situation we just had to try to get the result, and that’s what we did. Everybody dug in, people playing out of position, but that has been our situation so far this season.”
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