Bucks in a battle to get out of a losing rut

MTHATHA Bucks coach Duncan Lechesa sees their 1-1 draw against University of Pretoria as a two-point loss that could have been avoided, but he maintained things could have been worse.

This was Bucks’ seventh draw in the 2017-18 season, after having won four games and lost 10 games. Amathol’amnyama have remained at 15th position on the log-standings with 19 points. On the other hand, AmaTuks have been relegated to seventh position and are now on 30 points on the log-standings.

Lechesa said they could have taken the game against AmaTuks, but he was relieved that they fought back and avoided handing the High-Performance Centre outfit three points on a silver platter.

“In the first half we didn’t show much up and you could see that we were not there at all, until the second half.

“It’s good to know that we didn’t lose, because if we had lost this game we would have more problems, and that was going to be a very, very disappointing result.”

Lechesa said AmaTuks tried to create aerial problems for them, but they were able to deal with those problematic long balls thanks to their preparations and planning.

“We knew they were a team that was going to cross balls, and they thought they would catch us on the counter, but we didn’t sit back and let them do as they pleased.

“But when it came to crosses, we held them down like we wanted to.”

The former Bloemfontein Celtic head of development said the good thing for Bucks at this point in time was that they still had a chance to fight relegation on their own without having to rely on other teams dropping points.

“We don’t depend on anyone because we can still turn around the ship on our own, and at least the teams that are above us on the log-standings didn’t win their games too.”

Lechesa said they had to get maximum points when they take on fourth-placed Black Leopards at home this weekend.

“This game is a must-win for us, even though it won’t be an easy task to get done. We are fighting for a promotion and I have been saying that for the past three games, so we need to prepare ourselves.”

University of Pretoria assistant coach Brian Sebapole said they could have stolen the game in the first half, but it was meant to be.

“We had a chance to steal the win in the first half and the second half was just for us to maintain the score.

“Because we could have got a second or even a third goal, but unfortunately we kept missing those opportunities we had.”

He said their decision-making on the last third of the pitch let them down. But it’s the game of football.”

“Obviously when the opponents came up 15 minutes in the second half, they tried to put pressure on us, but we managed to contain them, and moving the ball in the direction we wanted it to go, and we did the things the way we were supposed to do.

“But unfortunately we couldn’t get the second goal until they equalised.”