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Johannesburg - Orlando Pirates captain Lucky Lekgwathi believes that Buyile Gqubule, who was refereeing the Soweto derby on Saturday afternoon, cost Pirates.
Lekgwathi claims that Gqubule blew his whistle before Bernard Parker took his free-kick which, according to him, brought the game to a halt. Parker’s free-kick subsequently found the back of the net beating Moeneeb Josephs and handing Kaizer Chiefs the lead.
“After the referee awarded Chiefs a free-kick, we were all ordered to stand back the mandatory 10-yards, which we did. Then, as Parker took the shot, the referee blew his whistle signalling that Oupa Manyisa broke away from the wall before the ball was touched by Parker. We all stopped, expecting a re-take but, to our surprise, when the ball hit the back of the net, the referee pointed straight to the centre line and ran away.
“I then went up to him and asked about it but he didn’t even say a single word. I’m not making excuses but I believe the referee cost us dearly. Even Parker delayed his celebration because he wasn’t sure what was going on,” revealed a dejected Lekgwathi.
He further revealed that he had to calm the situation down, as his team-mates were charging towards the official. Despite the questions surrounding referee Gqubule’s actions, the captain went on to congratulate Chiefs on their win.
“I had to calm the boys down because it was really uncharacteristic of them to charge at the referee but I understood their frustration. So I had to protect them from getting into trouble, but congratulations to Chiefs. I’ll be the first one to admit that we didn’t impose ourselves in the first-half, which is something the coach worked on in the first-half and we came back stronger in the second-half,” concluded Lekgwathi.
Lekgwathi claims that Gqubule blew his whistle before Bernard Parker took his free-kick which, according to him, brought the game to a halt. Parker’s free-kick subsequently found the back of the net beating Moeneeb Josephs and handing Kaizer Chiefs the lead.
“After the referee awarded Chiefs a free-kick, we were all ordered to stand back the mandatory 10-yards, which we did. Then, as Parker took the shot, the referee blew his whistle signalling that Oupa Manyisa broke away from the wall before the ball was touched by Parker. We all stopped, expecting a re-take but, to our surprise, when the ball hit the back of the net, the referee pointed straight to the centre line and ran away.
“I then went up to him and asked about it but he didn’t even say a single word. I’m not making excuses but I believe the referee cost us dearly. Even Parker delayed his celebration because he wasn’t sure what was going on,” revealed a dejected Lekgwathi.
He further revealed that he had to calm the situation down, as his team-mates were charging towards the official. Despite the questions surrounding referee Gqubule’s actions, the captain went on to congratulate Chiefs on their win.
“I had to calm the boys down because it was really uncharacteristic of them to charge at the referee but I understood their frustration. So I had to protect them from getting into trouble, but congratulations to Chiefs. I’ll be the first one to admit that we didn’t impose ourselves in the first-half, which is something the coach worked on in the first-half and we came back stronger in the second-half,” concluded Lekgwathi.
