Letsoaka: Violence could have been avoided

Cape Town - Bloemfontein Celtic coach Serame Letsoaka believes the ugly scenes that mired their 1-0 loss to Orlando Pirates on Saturday night could have been avoided if security personnel were more alert.

The match deteriorated into a fight between Celtic and Pirates fans after the Phunya Sele Sele supporters threw bottles onto the Orlando Stadium pitch.

As if that wasn't enough, they started a fight with a section of Pirates fans which resulted in dustbins and chairs being used as weapons.

"It's not for me to deal with the situation that happened today," Letsoaka said.

"But I feel that the situation, in terms of the security at the stadium, could have been arrested earlier.

"When it happened you could see that people were throwing things at each other. I felt that was the time the security could have intervened but the securities took their time until the fight itself was out of control.

"I don't have power over what has happened in terms of the people who are outside. Maybe to the supporters of the team who are supporting us, they need a little bit of patience.

"We are running out of patience, I must say. They are not used to this kind of situation but this situation is happening unfortunately."

The loss meant that the club had won just one match in their last 16 encounters. It doesn't make for good reading for someone who took over a team which was stable and in the top eight.

When asked whether he regretted his decision to accept the job, he added: "No regrets at all. I don't regret coming to Celtic.

"The environment is good and there are quality players. The only thing that we need to do is to put the ball at the back of the net because the team has been playing well."