Pretoria - Despite their poor start to the 2015/16 season, Mamelodi Sundowns attacking midfielder Teko Modise admits their MTN8 Cup exit did not dent their Absa Premiership title ambitions.
Sundowns suffered a 4-2 defeat on penalties after a 1-1 draw to Bloemfontein Celtic in the quarter-final at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
Fiston Abduol Razak opened the scoring for the Brazilians before Musa Bilankulu grabbed an equaliser for Phunya Sele Sele in the closing stages of extra-time.
The “Navigator” said that his team-mates have the ability and a strong mentality to soldier on from the defeat as they aim to do better in the remaining competitions on offer this season.
“We have done all lots of work in the pre-season and that was our first loss since then," said Modise.
“We never lost a single match during the pre-season and against Celtic I think we have dominated most in most parts of the match.
“We just needed to convert most of our chances created which we didn’t.
“We were also unfortunate to lose concentration and concede in the last minute of the game and we have learned from that.
“There is still so much more to play for this season, our loss didn’t dent our mentality as a team ahead of the league season.
“We have senior players within the team who are strong minded and we hope that we’ll keep our heads up.
“We still have the Telkom Knock-out, Nedbank cup, the league and the champions’ league to play for.”
The Brazilians are up against Platinum Stars at the Royal Bafokeng stadium on Saturday, August 8.
Kick-off is set to commence at 20:15.