United coach Tinkler left puzzled by his players' laboured performance

Eric Tinkler was left puzzled by his team’s performance on Tuesday as SuperSport United were held 1-1 at home by Chippa United.

Tinkler's charges looked out of sorts just days before they head to Zambia to try and win a place in the African Confederation Cup semifinal.

“I don’t know why to be honest with you‚" Tinkler said.

"Was it because we’ve played so many games in a short while?

"Was it because I made so many changes or is it because we have the game coming up?

"But it shouldn’t be an excuse.

"In my mind this had to be a three pointer and obviously we’ve gone and lost two.”

Tinkler rested six players with an eye on Saturday’s return clash in the Confederation Cup quarter-final against Zanaco in Ndola and although SuperSport dominated the early stages and took the lead through Siyabonga Nhlapo‚ they were stunned by a quick counter on the stroke of half-time as Moeketsi Sekola equalised.

After that it was the visiting side from Port Elizabeth who looked like the home team at Atteridgeville.

“If I must be honest‚ and you look back at the statistics over the 90 minutes‚ there weren’t many shots at goal … from either side‚” said Tinkler.

“But in the first half we managed to get into the final third very often‚ we managed to get behind them very often but we lacked composure once we got into those areas and our decision making was poor.

"Had that been better‚ I think we could have really killed off the game in the first half.

“We managed to get the one goal and the only time they ever caused a threat was when they scored‚ right at the death (of the first half) and that came off a mistake of ours‚ not looking to control the match.

"There was literally two minutes to play and we were taking risks and we got punished for it.

“In the second half they showed more intensity than us.

"Our intensity was simply not good enough‚ not high enough and they‚ obviously because of that intensity‚ had a lot of possession.

"Not that they caused much threat at our goal‚ but we know that‚ it’s the way Chippa play.

“When we did get the ball‚ we didn’t show enough composure‚ we didn’t make the right decision‚ we didn’t have enough movement and our intensity was not there‚ hence the fact we didn’t create much.

"The only shot we had in the second half was a shot from Bradley Grobler‚” the SuperSport coach added.

Tinkler now has two days to train with his squad before leaving for Zambia on Friday morning.

The first leg of the tie was a 0-0 draw last Friday at Atteridgeville. - TimesLIVE