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Johannesburg - Moroka Swallows' New Year duck continued as they succumbed to a 2-1 loss to SuperSport United at the Dobsonville Stadium on Wednesday night.
Coach Zeca Marques blamed the lack of experience for the loss to Matsantsantsa.
"Lack of experience at the back, defensively we allowed them to come into our box with no pressure," said Zeca.
"I thought we did exceptionally well as we scored the first goal and controlled the game. At that stage I thought the game was well within our reach and then we conceded the equaliser due to lack of pressure on the goalscorer. Those are the crucial moments in a game," added Marques.
"The second goal, down the left side again and these are the moments that at this level, if you don't have the experience, they just catch up to you," said the Swallows mentor.
Swallows were missing the experienced Luvhengo Mungomeni in central defence and Roger da Costa was below par by his standards resulting in him being sacrificed for an attacking player.
The Swallows coach rued missed chances and said maybe his team has been too anxious which as a result saw them struggle to break the duck.
"At the end of the day I think the players tried their best. In the second half we dominated the game and had great chances but it just didn't go our way. Sometimes in football the harder you try, it still doesn't come your way and I think we have to relax a bit and go back to the drawing board," said Marques.
SuperSport coach Cavin Johnson expressed his displeasure at the way his team scraped a result on the night.
"We played some great moves to score the goals but overall I don't think we played some good football," said Johnson.
"We really ground out a result tonight and sometimes when you grind a result like we did tonight it shows the character you have in the team.
"We got a good result yes but football-wise I don't think we did well at all."
The win however means United stay in the title hunt while for Swallows the loss means they missed out on a chance to break into the top eight.
