SuperSport United just don’t have luck at the moment, bemoans Arendse after Orlando Pirates loss

ANDRE Arendse is a glass-half-full kind of guy.

The SuperSport United stand-in coach chose to look on the bright side of his team’s 1-0 defeat by Orlando Pirates in their Premiership clash at Polokwane’s Peter Mokaba Stadium on Tuesday night.

The loss left Matsatsantsa a Pitori needing to beat Richards Bay FC in their final match of the season at the same venue on Saturday (3pm start) if they are to avoid getting into the play-offs to retain their elite league status.

It was SuperSport’s successive defeat after they lost to Stellenbosch FC, and they are tied on 26 points with 15th-placed Cape Town City.

Arendse believes they will survive.

“We’ve got it in the locker-room. We believe we can score goals and keep opposition strikers away, and we are going to keep that for the next game,” he said.

“We are going to have to do it the hard way... there’s no doubt about that. We’ve got the next one (match) coming, and we will prepare for that.”

SuperSport were unfortunate not to get at least a point from a match that Pirates won via a second-half goal from Mohau Nkota, who did well to get inside of Aphiwe Baliti to shoot with his favourite left foot after receiving the ball from Karim Kimvuidi on his right.

Late in the match, Nyiko Mobbie’s powerful header from a Pogisho Sanoka delivery bounced off the upright, with Pirates’ debutant goalkeeper Siyabonga Dladla, who was celebrating his 24th birthday, well beaten.

“There’s such a thing as luck in the game. There really is,” Arendse said post-match.

“And we don’t have it at the moment. On another night, that header hits the post and goes into the net. This time, it hits the post and comes back.

“Those are the kind of margins I am talking about in times of luck’s perspective. We just don’t have that at the moment.”

What they do have though is a fighting spirit and determination he lauded his team for.

“Of course I am not happy that we lost, but I am not disappointed in the performance. Once again, they gave their all out there,” Arendse said.

“I thought we pushed them so far into the game. Defensively, we looked very, very solid, and just one lapse in concentration and we are giving teams goals again, like in the past game (against Stellies).

“We’ve got to fix that and do it quickly because we are running out of games. We don’t have time.”

His outlook for the team, nevertheless, remained a positive one.

“We are going to do this (avoid going into the play-offs).

“There is no doubt in my mind that this group of players is going to see this team over the line, and I look forward to seeing that.”