Johnson apologises to ‘16-million supporters’ after Chiefs’ cup humiliation

Kaizer Chiefs coach Cavin Johnson apologised to the team’s millions of supporters for yet another trophy disappointment in the club’s humiliatingly long barren spell that is approaching a decade after being dumped out of the Nedbank Cup by Milford FC.

Chiefs, battling in sixth place in the DStv Premiership, will go to a ninth season without silverware in 2024-25 after embarrassingly losing 5-4 on penalties to the Motsepe Foundation Championship side after extra time ended at 0-0 at FNB Stadium on Sunday night.

Amakhosi hit the post twice and missed a penalty among a host of other chances they spurned in the last 32 encounter. Milford goalkeeper Siphamandla Hleza stopped Ranga Chivaviro’s spot-kick in extra time, and pulled off a string of other saves, then capped his man-of-the-match performance by striking the winning penalty in the shoot-out.

The defeat spurred “spaces” on X on Monday morning where fans were spending hours angrily voicing their displeasure at Chiefs’ continued woes, and particularly their management’s lack of effective decision-making that has resulted in the trophy drought.

“You’ve got to apologise to them, the 16-million supporters we have,” Johnson said in his post-match press conference.

“I am sure they will have seen the game on television. It’s not like we allowed the team [Milford] to come at us and I think they never had a shot at goal.

“But we tried the best we could to get as far as we could in this tournament. With the trophy drought being as it is at the moment now we’ve lost it [Chiefs' chance in the Nedbank].

“The only thing we can do is repay people by playing properly in the league.”

Johnson was left bemused at how his team, which had showed promise going five league matches unbeaten to edge up the table, capitulated to the first division campaigners.

“Not a good day at the office for Kaizer Chiefs. I thought we had probably 80% or 90% [domination] playing against a team that sat back the whole game.

“We had four clear, clear chances besides the other 15 that could have gone in. And we also went and missed the penalty.

“So you think about the first 15 minutes when we should have scored with two clear chances we did not put away, and towards the end of the first half [of extra time] we had the penalty and did not score that.

“But there are so many moments in the game where we don’t score the goal and don’t dominate the opponent correctly and then we lose on penalties.

“But like they always say, we try to score and plan for until the fat lady sings and tonight she sang for the opposition.

“For Chiefs it’s not a good pill to swallow. We have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and play for the league as hard as we can, because if I invited you into my change room now you would see a lot of sad, sad, sad boys.”

Chiefs — on 25 points, 14 behind leaders Mamelodi Sundowns — meet Moroka Swallows in the league at FNB on Saturday (5.45pm).