Tinkler’s chest swells with pride as youngsters fight hard

Eric Tinkler says he was proud of his young SuperSport United side, even though the defence of their Nedbank Cup title was halted at the first hurdle on Sunday, when they were beaten on penalties by Bloemfontein Celtic at the Dr Molemela Stadium.

Matsatsantsa A Pitori lost 5-4 on spotkicks after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. In a rather prophetic manner, Tinkler predicted the game would be decided on penalties in his pre-match television interview.

Ndumiso Mabena netted for Celtic in the opening period of normal time while Sipho Mbule (right) equalised for SuperSport in the second half.

The one plus for Matsantsantsa is that their domestic focus can now be solely on making it further up the Absa Premiership table, with fatigue seeming to play a part in a dreadful run of results on either side of 2018.

“We said the league is more important right now, but we would have loved to make it to the next round especially with these young boys because of the effort that they put in, they surely deserved to go through,” said Tinkler.

“I am obviously disappointed but the boys showed character and worked extremely hard in the second half.

“The performance was better than the first half and we pulled ourselves back into the game and we had a few chances. The young boys showed enough potential so we can’t be upset by the defeat,” the former Cape Town City coach added.

Tinkler’s capital city-based campaigners are currently 11th in the Absa Premiership.

“We want to finish in the topeight. Right now we need to in- crease the gap at the bottom,” said Tinkler, whose side have a full week to prepare before they travel to face the struggling Platinum Stars next Tuesday in Phokeng.

“Now that we have the break before we play Platinum Stars, it gives us an opportunity to start refocusing on the goals that we have conceded as to how we rectify that, and to look for opportunities to score and to focus on finishing.

“This now becomes an opportunity to address all of that, now that we will hopefully be playing one game a week.”