Goals from Lebohang Maboe and Gaston Sirino enabled the defending champions to open a five-point gap at the top over SuperSport United and Swallows
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi was not entirely satisfied with his side’s 2-0 league win over Chippa United at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Sunday.
The Tshwane side could certainly have scored more, but a combination of poor finishing and some great saves by Man-of-the-Match Ayanda Mtshali in goal for the visitors kept the scoreline respectable from the Chilli Boys’ perspective.
Sunday’s match followed the club’s confirmation a day earlier that former Sundowns defender Motjeka Madisha had died in a motor vehicle accident.
The incident occurred on 12 December last year but until now it had not been officially confirmed due to the difficulties in identifying the remains.
When Sundowns celebrated their two goals they paid tribute to Madisha by holding his shirt aloft.
While Mngqithi was appreciative of the symbolism of the gestures made by his players, he still ultimately felt his side could have scored more.
“We did not score the goals we should have scored, I think we could have easily scored six or more goals,” he told SuperSport TV after the match.
“But there are times in football that maybe you must accept that maybe Madisha only wanted us to score two goals, because we were playing for him today so I think it’s fair to give him two goals. Today I honestly believed we deserved to score more than five goals, but that’s football for you.”
Mngqithi then went on to credit his analysts and technical team for the work they do in analyzing the opposition and preparing for matches accordingly.
However, with that said, he again came back to Downs’ missed chances, something he has previously complained about this season on several occasions.
“The tactical organization of the team is impressive, but we are not ruthless enough. That’s one area that we are always shouting and fighting for,” the former Golden Arrows coach lamented.
“We are not scoring as many goals as we should. And when you come out of this match and you have scored two goals, everybody gets excited that you have scored two goals.
"But to be honest when you get chances like this, this is one game that should give you six, eight goals, from there you’ve got a very healthy goal difference.”