Cape Town - Golden Arrows coach Steve Komphela believes his side's poor opening to the game was to blame for the 2-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns on Tuesday night.
Arrows were at sixes-and-sevens in the opening 10 minutes as the Brazilians ran riot and could have easily scored five goals.
Hlompho Kekana and Themba Zwane scored in quick succession of each other to hand Sundowns the advantage.
Komphela's men did improve in the second stanza but it was not enough to seal a comeback.
The results hurts Arrows' top eight ambitions whereas 'Downs move to the top of the Absa Premiership charts.
"I thought we had a bad start. Terrible opening 10 minutes and it defined the rest of the match," Komphela said.
"I thought one mistake we made in the 10 minutes of disaster was not getting close enough to them.
"We allowed them to penetrate with ease and we paid the price. Second half things got better. We tweaked things. We played in a diamond shape. So it got better. The amount of pressure we put on in the second half and the possession we kept I think we could have got a goal or two."
The club's last game in the league is on Saturday against Bidvest Wits on home soil, with kick-off at 15:00.