Cape Town — Cape Town City's inconsistency surfaced again on Saturday when they were held to a 1-1 draw (their fifth of the season) by Chippa United in their DStv Premiership clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Chippa produced a vastly improved second-half performance and had more shots at goal, but it was mostly off-target. They forced Darren Keet, the City keeper, to make four saves in the match.
In the end, coach Eric Tinkler was relieved to come away with a point which helped his side to move into eighth place on the standings.
“I think a draw was a fair result," he said. “I think in the first half we let them off the hook. We had a lot of possession that we should have retained.
"Our build-up play with the back three was fine with no pressure on our right centre-back or our left centre-back. They were able to travel with the ball as we looked to mount attacks.
"Then we start forcing the ball and we start looking for passes when it’s not on."We should rather have kept the ball and start to frustrate them. That way you start creating openings and creating chances. When that happens, you have to make sure you bury them.“
Tinkler said Chippa's surprise substitutions before the half-time break helped to take the game away from his side. Chippa replaced Diego Appollis and Andile Mbenyane with Nigerian Etiosa Ighodaro and Siphelele Luthuli.
"When they made the changes, they suddenly had more energy," said Tinkler. "The youngster Appollis and Mbenyane had no energy and Ighodaro made a difference.
"Up to that time, we had a lot of the ball but then that changed. We kept playing the ball long and that's when we started playing into their hands.
"We needed to play with more speed and move the ball more often. We needed to rotate nicely and quickly.
"In the second half, they were much more aggressive than us. We were not great."
Charismatic Chippa coach Morgan Mammila said he felt the urge to make the substitutions earlier in the match but decided to do it later.
"Football is something else," said Mammila. "I saved players for the second half but after 20 minutes I wanted to make the changes. Then I thought that will destroy the players (the ones that were substituted) and I did not want to do that."I think we should have come away with all three points. Overall, I'm happy with the point but I think we could have had three.
"If the team carries on playing like this, I will give them another four games and they will be top-class. You must remember this team did not have a pre-season.
"The stats will show this performance was better than our last match when we lost against Sundowns."
City will next be in action on Friday when they host TS Galaxy at the Cape Town Stadium.
Chippa will travel to Durban on Saturday for a clash against Royal AM at the Chatsworth Stadium.
IOL Sport