Draw not on for Chippa mentor

CHIPPA United coach Vladislav Heric says his team’s 1-1 draw against struggling Ajax Cape Town in their league fixture at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Sunday felt like a defeat.

A 90th-minute goal from Ajax striker Yannick Zakri torpedoed the Chilli Boys’ chances of clinching their second consecutive win after their inspiring 3-0 victory over Kaizer Chiefs the week before.

The last time the PE-based side collected three points at home was when they beat Amakhosi 1-0 in December last year.

Heric said giving points away at home was like a kick in the gut. “This feels like a defeat to me because at home we cannot accommodate one point,” said the Serbian-born coach.

“We cannot give points away to opponents . . . that is not on. We must show better football at home.

“I will ask my players in the future to respect their home and to find more energy.

“The team has improved generally. We are creating more chances now. I do believe that the players believe in themselves and in the game plan that we have put together. So, all of this improvement can take us somewhere.”

But the former Bay United mentor said his players were sluggish during the first stanza of the game.

“The game did not start well for us, because we had too many back passes. We gave them too much time to think... how they can sort out our game plan out and how they can match us in certain areas.

“From the beginning it was very difficult. We were a little bit lethargic in the first half although we created two or three chances.

“In the second half we scored that goal and the team turned into another mode that we had planned for.

“That was to catch them on counter, score two or three goals and conclude the game.

“But, that never happened. We created a couple of chances. We were good on counters and we beat them on the flanks. Mark Mayambela was brilliant there but unfortunately we had no proper moment of the ball in the net.”

Heric said he would give his players some time off to get a proper rest so that he can have fresh legs for their next two matches against Bloemfontein Celtic (away) and SuperSport United (EL). Chippa are seventh on the log with 34 points from 27 games.