THIRD TIME UNLUCKY
TINKLER: ALSO DENIED WINNERS’ MEDAL IN 2013, 2015
‘We didn’t produce enough quality to get that goal’.
Eric Tinkler admitted TP Mazembe’s vast experience in continental club competitions was the main reason SuperSport United failed overturn a one-goal deficit in the Caf Confederation Cup final, second leg yesterday, with the Ravens winning the competition for the second year in a row. Matsatsantsa needed to find the back of the net just once without a response from Mazembe in Atteridegeville if they were to win the tournament – but it was not to be as the Congolese side held United to a goalless draw to win the trophy 2-1 on aggregate.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with our lack of experience, it has to do with their experience because we are talking about a team that has won many continental titles and I think you could see that to a degree in terms of how they played. So we have to give some credit to them and for us, there was going to have to be a winner and a loser and unfortunately we were on the losing end,” said Tinkler.
“It was about creating the chances to score and I don’t think we did that enough. We had a couple of chances but unfortunately we didn’t put the ball in the back of the net. I felt we didn’t produce enough quality to get that goal,” added the former Cape Town City coach.
This now becomes Tinkler’s third runners-up medal on the continent after leading Orlando Pirates to the 2015 Confederation Cup final and finishing second in the 2013 Champions League as an assistant coach at Roger de Sa’s Orlando Pirates. Nonetheless, he has not lost his appetite for glory on the continent.
“The motivation is always there, I want to win things and achieve things on the continent. There’s disappointment from everybody. The players understand the hard work that it has taken to get to this stage and there’s massive disappointment from them and there’s disappointment coming from me because we set out in this journey to win it and having to come off as runners-up is never a good feeling. But does that make us a bad team? Does that make me a bad coach? I don’t think so.”