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Pretoria - University of Pretoria coach Steve Barker believes that his charges poor start to their weekend encounter against Mamelodi Sundowns led to their elimination from the Telkom Knockout Cup.
The Students lost 2-1 to their Pretoria rivals in the last 16 of the Ziwa Mo competition at the Loftus stadium on Saturday.
Despite lamenting their poor start, Barker also hailed his side second half performance on the night.
"We didn't play that well at all in the first half," said Barker.
"We gave them (Sundowns) a lot of space to knock those passes around.
"We respected them too much which allowed them to have a freedom of the park. We even missed few chances before half time, but we managed to re-group in the second half and created more scoring chances.
"We showed a lot of commitment in the second half and we deserved to get an equaliser, but overall it was a great team effort unfortunately it was not to be.
"Hopefully we will make amends going forward."
Sundowns will meet AmaZulu in the quarter-finals of the R4.25 million competition.
The Students lost 2-1 to their Pretoria rivals in the last 16 of the Ziwa Mo competition at the Loftus stadium on Saturday.
Despite lamenting their poor start, Barker also hailed his side second half performance on the night.
"We didn't play that well at all in the first half," said Barker.
"We gave them (Sundowns) a lot of space to knock those passes around.
"We respected them too much which allowed them to have a freedom of the park. We even missed few chances before half time, but we managed to re-group in the second half and created more scoring chances.
"We showed a lot of commitment in the second half and we deserved to get an equaliser, but overall it was a great team effort unfortunately it was not to be.
"Hopefully we will make amends going forward."
Sundowns will meet AmaZulu in the quarter-finals of the R4.25 million competition.
