Bad finishing costing us, says coach Tinkler

Maritzburg United coach Eric Tinkler (below) used the break to work more on his team’s finishing which he felt had let them down as they created “more than 40 chances” in their last two games but couldn’t even take one of those.

The Team of Choice suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Black Leopards in their last game at home and Tinkler says that result played negatively on the team’s psyche, hence it was one of the areas he worked on.

“That was a massive disappointment and I think it physiologically affected the players. What we have tried to do in the past three weeks was to motivate them and get them back to the confidence and belief they had before.

“They have responded positively and the fact that we are playing a massive game against Mamelodi Sundowns next makes it easier because the players will be self-motivated for it,” said Tinkler, though he will be without new striker Jeremy Brockie, as he cannot play against his parent club as part of the loan agreement.

“It is going to be a tough task, but there are no guarantees in this league. Anybody can beat anybody. If we can go there and give out a big performance, we can collect maximum points. Nothing is stopping us from achieving that. It is really important for us right now moving forward,” he added.

He did, however admit that it was not easy to see if the work they put in at training would immediately yield positive results as only a match situation can reveal the team’s character.

Asked how ready they are for Sundowns, he said: “We will only know after the game, or just before the game, or even during the Sundowns game because there was obviously disappointment after the Leopards defeat. The team performed really well but again we couldn’t score. We should have at least got away with a point from it but we came out with zero.”

He is happy that every player in the team is looking sharp and ready should they be picked for the match at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday evening.

“Everybody is holding up their hands and that is good for me. The players who were out with niggling injuries are also coming back.”