Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou expressed mixed emotions following his side’s hard-fought 2-2 draw against Richards Bay FC.

WATCH: Pirates Held To Thrilling Draw By Richards Bay

The Buccaneers dropped two crucial points after they played to a thrilling draw at the Richards Bay Stadium on Friday evening.

The draw sees Pirates remain in second place in the Betway Premiership standings with 55 points after 24 matches.

READ: Zothwane: I Felt We Could’ve Won The Match

Ouaddou has acknowledged both the resilience shown by his players and the frustration of dropping valuable points in the title race.

“We knew that it would be difficult here, we know every time we come here the team that we play against Richards Bay is all the time very strong, we knew that it would be difficult when you concede one goal and after you come back, they equalise you,” Ouaddou told SuperSport TV after the match.

“It’s the first time I think we concede a second goal like that and after we come back the guys did everything to come back to win that game, I think there’s a little bit of disappointment because I think’s two points that we lost in this race.

“But you know the guys fight until the end, let’s work until the end like I said. Lots of people will think that it’s over but we don’t like that, we have to play our game until the end. But today I think our strength was not to concede goal to have a lot of clean-sheet.

“But today unfortunately this area was a little bit weak and when you come here and concede two goals it’s very difficult to score three goals here but let’s congratulate the boys with the character because they came back and scored two goals – that’s positive point but I think we lost two points tonight,” he concluded.