Durban — Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane blasted his side's complacent approach in their defeat against Chippa United, saying he and his players have to take a closer look at themselves following the shock defeat.
Chiefs suffered their first ‘home’ defeat of the season as they went down 2-1 to Chippa at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday evening.
The Chilli Boys scored in the 91st minute through an own goal by Edmilson Dove to complete a come-from-behind victory, denying Chiefs an opportunity to climb to the top of the DStv Premiership standings.
"I think we won the game before we even started. You could see at the beginning of the game we were a bit sluggish and we thought it was going to be an easy game," Zwane told SuperSport TV.
"At halftime I had to be jack them (the players ) up a bit just to make them aware, because in the first half, even though we scored the goal, we didn't dictate terms, we didn't show character and we allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do."
The Glamour Boys recorded a total of 19 attempts on their opponents’ goal, six of them on target compared to Chippa United’s two. Chiefs striker Caleb Bimenyimana and Keagan Dolly were guilty of missing great chances to score.
A clearly frustrated Zwane expressed his annoyance at his players' failure to execute their prescribed plans ahead of this encounter and lamented the opportunities missed in front of goal as a result of an improved second half showing.
"If we had started the same way we started the second, we would've been better. Had we put them under pressure and forced them to make mistakes like we did in the dying minutes, look at how many chances we created," he explained.
Prior to this defeat, Chiefs has gone on a seven-game unbeaten streak in all competitions, climbing to within two points of log-leading Mamelodi Sundowns and Zwane feels this defeat will greatly hinder their growth ahead of the upcoming games.
"We have ourselves to blame here. This is one game that could've helped us keep our confidence sky-high, but we let ourselves down big time and I hope we can learn from this," a dejected Zwane added.
Amakhosi will have to dust themselves off pretty quickly as the fixtures continue to come thick and fast as they take on a struggling TS Galaxy side in midweek.