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Cape Town - Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler felt his side were lacking confidence in their 0-0 stalemate away to Bloemfontein Celtic at the Dr Molemela Stadium on Saturday.
The draw with Celtic followed City's shock 1-0 loss in the Nedbank Cup to third tier side Acornbush United the previous weekend.
The point, however, was enough to keep the Citizens at the top of the league table, one point above Bidvest Wits, who have played two games less.
It also extended the Cape side's unbeaten run in the Premiership to six games, yet there were several areas of concern for Tinkler.
"I don't really know what's happened, it looks like the confidence has gone to a degree. First half we looked lethargic, we panicked, we really struggled to link up play," the former Orlando Pirates head coach explained.
"What tended to happen then was Lebo Manyama was playing too high, then we struggled to get the link up play to get the ball into (Lehlohonolo) Majoro. Then Bongo (Bongolethu Jayiya) was coming in to early and technically we were losing the ball too cheaply.
"Defensively we were very spread out, they were winning the second balls and they caused us problems in the first half. We were no reflection of what we've been in that first half," added the former Bafana midfielder.
Tinkler did find some positives from his side's second half display, but admits there is a lot of work to do on the training ground.
"Second-half I thought it was slightly better. We created a few more chances, we looked to be a little more compact to one another in possession.
"Possibly we could have stolen it, but overall we deserved at least a point. A point is better than nothing, it is away from home. Obviously we would have preferred the three but you know what's important is that one point was in our pocket and we didn't relinquish it.
"I think certain areas of our game we still need to improve on. Throw-ins for example, every throw-in [we were] giving possession back to them.
"Our offensive set-pieces are also very poor and those are things we need to work on. But most importantly we have to start to get the confidence back into the team. We look very nervous when we play and I'm not too sure why that is."
