Cup win leaves questions about Richards Bay defence

Richards Bay coach Vusimuzi Vilakazi praised the offensive efforts of his side as they beat Polokwane City 3-2 in the Nedbank Cup on Saturday, but was not as complimentary about his defence.

The home side came from a goal down to win by the odd goal in five, surviving a last gasp shot from Polokwane that hit the upright and bounced away, to edge their way into the second round.

“It was a great effort from our players in the first half, making sure that we equalised and also then getting the goal for us to lead,” said Vilakazi, after only this third game in charge since replacing Kaitano Tembo as coach in December.

“But we needed to maintain our defensive structure and be consistent in. But I think unfortunately, football is a very short blanket. You focus on offensive play, and then you find that your defensive structure is dented.

“So I think that's what happened to us. In our last game, we created so many scoring opportunities against Sekhukhune United yet only scored one. So we focused more on our offensive play for the cup game. And our defensive structure was just terrible. Both centre backs were not able to deal with the aerial duels against the striker (Douglas Mapfumo). And I also feel that maybe with the second goal that we conceded our keeper (Jackson Mabokgwane) could have done better as well,” Vilakazi added after the game at Umlazi.

“Our defence structure was just not spot on. But there's no other way but to go back and try to rectify it. I think if we can make sure that we don't concede goals, we can win games, because we always create scoring opportunities and scoring goals.”