Orlando Pirates co-coach Mandla Ncikazi has hit out in annoyance at the officiating against the Buccaneers so far this season.
The Buccaneers failed to leapfrog rivals Kaizer Chiefs in the DStv Premiership standings after they were held to a 1-1 draw with Swallows FC at the Dobsonville Stadium on Tuesday evening.
As a result, Pirates remain in third place on the log with 24 points after 16 games, while the Dube Birds are in 13th on 13 points from 16 matches.
Ncikazi admits his side were not at their best but feels that certain refereeing decisions never went their way.
“That becomes a problem in our game where we create the opportunities but, the final pass or the shot, we don’t score. And it comes back to bite you. You give confidence to the opponents. If we had taken our chances early enough we wouldn’t be in the situation that we are,” Ncikazi told SuperSport TV after the game.
“But we played in patches today. I don’t think we dominated throughout. There were moments where it was scary. Swallows were a bit dominant but enough chances to score. We just missed that final pass.
“And the refereeing doesn’t help,” added Ncikazi. “Pirates have been subjected to this subjective officiating for quite some time. I can calculate from a number of matches. It’s either it’s closed or it doesn’t fall for us. I hope it will change at some point. I’m not making excuses today. Not the best of games but, again, we had opportunities to win. Some decisions I think should have fell for us but it didn’t happen.
“Not only in this match, as I’m saying. Even the best analysts when they analyse it’s always bad for us or they won’t show it at all. I just feel we not as lucky in terms of officiating. I can calculate from Kaizer Chiefs they got a penalty. We were supposed to get a penalty on the other side. You expect from the analyses from the best analysts you will see that. It doesn’t even show. There’s a penalty that we got through Peprah that we didn’t get against AmaZulu. The list is endless and when you say this as a coach you sound like you are making excuses.”
He continued: “Today was not the best day. But, based on the opportunities we created I would say we have a better advantage. Let’s take the point and try to be ready for Friday.
“The difference between Swallows, it’s maybe a stage where we need to refresh the team. I thought maybe we did not do much in that department. If you look at the changes they made and the changes we made, we did not change the team we played the previous match. But we are aware of it. We have to try. This schedule is very difficult to manage as a coach.
“You go for the continuity of a team that won previously or you just change when you’re trying to refresh the team. And I don’t think we did very well in that department,” he concluded.
