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Palacios: Bad results down to transitional period

Cape Town - Orlando Pirates fought back to salvage a 2-2 draw against Cape Town City at the Cape Town Stadium in a pulsating Absa Premiership clash after suffering consecutive defeats to Mamelodi Sundowns and Bidvest Wits.

A long-range strike by former Ajax Cape Town winger, Riyaad Norodien in stoppage time salvaged a point for the Buccaneers to ensure that interim-manager, Augusto Palacios' reign at the helm did not end in a defeat.

Pirates started the game brightly and dominated Eric Tinkler's charges, which hasn't happened often this season before deservedly taking the lead through midfielder Dove Wome.

City though managed to absorb an early onslaught by the Buccaneers and turned the game around through strikes by man-of-the-match Roland Putsche and the outstanding Leboganag Manyama before Norodien's late strike rescued a point for the Soweto based side.

Pirates, who are celebrating their 80-year celebrations as one of the iconic names in South African football, have had a disastrous season after suffering heavy defeats to SuperSport United (6-1) and a record breaking 6-0 humiliation to Mamelodi Sundowns.

The loss to the Brazilians resulted in a pitch invasion at Loftus Versfeld by frustrated Pirates fans as the violent scenes made international headlines.

In the post-match interview after the City clash, Palacios denied that his players were undisciplined and that the club was poorly run, instead claiming that his side's poor form was down to the club going through a transitional period.

"Let me make it clear, It has nothing to do with being undisciplined or the way the club is run," Palacios said.

"Every club has a process, and the process is... when you check the treble, it was three, five or maybe seven years that it took to build that team.

"Now we have new players and it takes time, I will give you an example - Mourinho coming to Manchester United, (he signed) new players and still no championship and with Pep Guardiola coming to City, it's the same.

"The most difficult thing at the big clubs is the results, and the club now needs to build a team to be competitive and this is the truth, it's not a problem with the chairman or with the players or anyone else.

"At any club this happens and this time it happened to Pirates,but next time it might happen to another team. But now we need to try to put together the pieces to build a successful team.

"But Pirates has something very good which is amazing support, when we arrived at the airport we had many fans to welcome us and what comforts me is the supporters saying that they love us."

Pirates, who will be announcing their new coach on Monday will next welcome Polokwane City to the Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

Kick off is at 15:30.

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