Baxter disappointed Kaizer Chiefs were not inspired by arbitration outcome

Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter was disappointed by the performances of some of his senior players after Amakhosi gave a below-par performance in their 1-0 DStv Premiership defeat to Lamontville Golden Arrows on Saturday.

Chiefs conceded after five minutes when Eric Mathoho’s sloppy back-pass was collected by Knox Mutizwa, who scored and gave Abafana Bes’thende a crucial victory at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.

Baxter saw no sign of the quality his men displayed in their previous game against Orlando Pirates, where they fought hard to claim a 2-1 victory.

Before the Soweto derby win, Chiefs scored in the dying minutes through Khama Billiat to beat Baroka FC 1-0, but that zest for victory was nowhere to be seen on Saturday.

“Obviously, the start of the game wasn’t what we were looking for, to give away a goal so early in the game. But we still had about 80 minutes left to play, we should have kept our cool. We should have played properly and planned something to get back. We didn’t do that,” Baxter said.

“I think I can just fast forward through the whole of the first half where we didn’t have enough quality. Whenever we showed a bit of quality, we allowed ourselves to get some sort of movement while the ball was being turned over all the time with bad first touches and inaccurate passes.

“And our attacks lacked the quality that we really needed.”

Baxter blamed his senior players, who he said didn’t produce enough fight to even force a draw at home.

“When things don’t go right, and when we concede the goal at the beginning of the game, you want experienced players to rally around,” Baxter said.

The coach had hoped that after Chiefs on Friday crucially won their arbitration at the SA Football Association against the Premier Soccer League (PSL) his players would be highly motivated.

The arbitrator ordered that, rather than forfeit the points for two matches the club failed to honour in December amid an outbreak of Covid-19, the matches be rescheduled.

The arbitration result had significantly boosted Amakhosi's chances of catching up with, or at least pressurising runaway Premiership leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.

“I think that should have been a bit of motivation for the players,” Baxter said.

“I think it’s a conclusion that we all wanted — we want to play the games and we wanted it to be decided on the field, and we wanted the opportunity to play for those points.

“That’s the basic of sport. You want the results to be decided by sport. You don’t want a pitch invader or a power failure or a bad decision by an official. You want it to be done in a sporting way and I think we will get that opportunity,” the Briton said.

“We have to lick our wounds, sharpen our swords and prepare for the next one.”

Chiefs will face relegation-threatened teams Chippa United and TS Galaxy after the Fifa international break.