Players lashed as fans vent anger

WE FORGOT WHAT WE HAD PLANNED

Shameful. This word – which the dictionary describes as an adjective referring to a disgraceful act – best sums up Orlando Pirates’ campaign this past season as the Soweto giants finished yet another season without any silverware.

Bucs had a chance to grab some silverware but came undone as SuperSport United handed them a 4-1 drubbing in the Nedbank Cup on Saturday night.

Kjell Jonevret’s team failed to rise to the occasion and their performance didn’t inspire any confidence. The fans voiced their anger at the end, threatening to invade the pitch and beat up the players.

A dejected Jonevret told the media his team had just been in a bad nightmare.

“I would prefer to be somewhere else right now because this was not just a nightmare, we had a very bad one,” he said.

“We gave the ball away too easily. We had a few chances as well and at half-time we said we can change this. They scored the second goal and we seemed to forget what we had planned,” he added.

“This was not the Pirates we had seen in the past few months. We are all disappointed. We didn’t follow what we had planned.

“The players wanted so much to achieve something that instead of doing the easy things we normally do they tried something different and it didn’t work. As a team we defended very poorly.”

The four-week break that Pirates had after the Absa Premiership season ended may have had a negative impact on his team, but Jonevret said he didn’t want to use that as an excuse.

“I don’t want to make excuses but we were inactive for four weeks. We were playing smart in the past three months, which is why we got to the final but we seem to have forgotten a few things,” he said.