Mamelodi Sundowns returned to the summit of the Betway Premiership table with their 2-1 win over Royal AM on Wednesday evening, but Brazilians coach Manqoba Mngqithi was far from happy with his charges.
Sundowns scored the opener in the sixth minute through Sphelele Mkhulise and only five minutes before time were they able to double their lead as Khuliso Mudau found the back of the net.
Royal AM, though, made it a nervy conclusion as Sbangani Zulu grabbed a goal in added time.
With 70% possession and more than double the number of passes made by their opponents with 602, Sundowns were by far the dominant side.
Mngqithi was critical about his side’s finishing after the match.
‘Untidy in the final third’
“I think we started the game very well but we were very untidy in the final third, we made a lot of silly mistakes. We could’ve wrapped up the game in the first-half, we had better opportunities to do that, the final pass, that final decision, a flick pass, casual and that cost us the game,” Mngqithi told SuperSport.
“Because we could have easily scored a lot of goals in this match had we taken our chances earlier and that for me is the downside of this game but otherwise the boys played well, it’s just that their untindiness made it a little bit difficult because at the end they could have easily scored from that header and then what?”
However, Mngqithi was not short of praise for the players who stood out.
“But I was impressed with a lot of players, I think [Khuliso] Mudau came to the party, Mothobi [Mvala] was strong, Grant [Kekana] was strong, I also believe Divine [Lunga] did very well in the game. The central midfield was strong for the longest part of the game but there were a lot of area we need to improve.
“We were a little bit stretched, first half we had a lot of long passes, which made the game not to have a proper control. But all we wanted was three points and we got the three points.”