Orlando Pirates head coach Eric Tinkler admitted he was unimpressed with the Buccaneers’ performance against Chippa United, despite a 4-1 battering of the visitors.
Substitute Mpho Makola scored twice to add to Ayanda Gcaba and Kermit Erasmus goals at Orlando Stadium in a second half which produced five stunning strikes and a red card, with Buyani Sali netting the consolation goal for United.
But Roger Sikhakhane’s side caused problems for the Bucs’ defence, which looked shaky at times particularly in the first half.
Tinkler made five changes from the team that lost 1-0 at SuperSport United last week, but, despite grabbing the three points to move to the top of the log standings on three points from two matches, the adjustments resulted in a lacklustre performance.
“Obviously I’m very happy to get our first win at home but football is a funny game. If I look at our performance against SuperSport and compare it with today’s, I think it’s really chalk and cheese,” said Tinkler after the match.
“I think the SuperSport performance was far better than this (against Chippa) and yet we couldn’t score.
“Today (Tuesday) our first half performance wasn’t great to be entirely honest with you. I thought it was very lethargic. We were very slow, we lost possession very easily, we couldn’t deliver a decent cross into the box and our link up play was really poor.
“First half was quite terrible, second half a lot better. We had a chat at half time about areas we needed to improve on and was happy we scored from a set piece. That kind of brought a different spirit to the team,” said Tinkler, who added the win was huge for his team ahead of Saturday’s visit of AC Leopards for the penultimate round of the CAF Confederations Cup group stages.
Pirates hosts the Congolese outfit at the same venue on Saturday and win will send Tinkler’s side into the semi finals of the continental showpiece.
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