THE pressure of maintaining their large points advantage at the top of the Premier Soccer League was beginning to tell on Kaizer Chiefs, coach Stuart Baxter admitted as he tried to explain their failure to bury chances against Polokwane City in midweek.
Chiefs drew 0-0 with their hosts at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Tuesday after a series of horror misses in front of goal that Baxter said might have all rolled in had Chiefs been awarded a first-half effort, erroneously ruled as a foul by Kingstone Nkhatha when television replays showed he had done nothing wrong in forcing the ball into the back of the net.
“The most popular result in the country will be the first time we lose. Every team in the country is going to be dead pleased.
“So, in that respect, the players are plugging away and doing their best but you’ve got to say if we had put one of those chances away then I’m certain we would have blasted away the other chances.
“But while it stayed 0-0 and it become very, very important to win, the players could just not sort out their feet and that is what happens,” Baxter said.
“You want everybody to do the job. I want my players to play better, I want the referees to do better and we want the supporters to behave better.
“It’s three in every game. Like against Sundowns when they had three chances all game but I felt we presented two of them to them. Polokwane had three all game, too, but the one was a triple chance that made it seem like we were hanging on for grim death.
“People might see this result as if we are stalling,” added Baxter, “but if we had put away one or two we would have been up and running.”
Pressure at top of table begins to tell on Chiefs
Chiefs drew 0-0 with their hosts at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Tuesday after a series of horror misses in front of goal that Baxter said might have all rolled in had Chiefs been awarded a first-half effort, erroneously ruled as a foul by Kingstone Nkhatha when television replays showed he had done nothing wrong in forcing the ball into the back of the net.
“The most popular result in the country will be the first time we lose. Every team in the country is going to be dead pleased.
“So, in that respect, the players are plugging away and doing their best but you’ve got to say if we had put one of those chances away then I’m certain we would have blasted away the other chances.
“But while it stayed 0-0 and it become very, very important to win, the players could just not sort out their feet and that is what happens,” Baxter said.
“You want everybody to do the job. I want my players to play better, I want the referees to do better and we want the supporters to behave better.
“It’s three in every game. Like against Sundowns when they had three chances all game but I felt we presented two of them to them. Polokwane had three all game, too, but the one was a triple chance that made it seem like we were hanging on for grim death.
“People might see this result as if we are stalling,” added Baxter, “but if we had put away one or two we would have been up and running.”
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