Johannesburg - Arthur Zwane was calmness personified amid calls for his sacking following Kaizer Chiefs’ 3-2 defeat to Golden Arrows at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday.
A section of the partisan 18 300 crowd that descended at the former World Cup venue booed Zwane at the final whistle of a match Amakhosi should have won at a canter.
And as they chanted “Arthur must go”, the Chiefs coach retained his controlled demeanour as he walked down the tunnel escorted by police.
But deep in the bowels of the stadium he understandably appeared a little rattled as he addressed the media during the post-match conference.
With Chiefs having twice squandered a lead and then fell behind late in the match, Zwane was rightly disappointed, blaming his team for not being “ourselves today”.
And he felt the fans were justified in their anger and reaction.
“The fans are within their rights (to be angry),” Zwane said. “They are disappointed because we should have won this game. We should have wrapped it up in the first half.”
He was spot on, for Chiefs were the better team and created enough chances to have killed the match off before the half-hour mark.
But they were once again poor in the final third and while they did score first via Sifiso Hlanti, they allowed Arrows the equaliser through Ntsako Makhubela at the stroke of halftime.
They returned from the break and quickly restored their lead via Mduduzi Shabalala, but again gave it away with some poor marking that allowed Knox Mutizwa to equalise.
Mutizwa then made them pay dearly for all those earlier misses when he scored the third goal.
The Chiefs fans who had been chanting and cheering their team were confident they would witness their team register a victory at their second home were left disappointed. And as is always the case, they took out their frustrations on the coach, calling for Zwane’s departure.
The reality, however, is that it was the players who fluffed their chances that could have seen Chiefs win at a canter.
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“We should have scored at least six goals,” Zwane said.
He admitted though that he has a lot to work on, with lifting the players’ confidence and getting them to play with their usual intensity top of the list, ahead of Saturday’s Soweto derby against Orlando Pirates.
IOL Sport