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Cape Town - Orlando Pirates coach Rhulani Mokwena insists he can't ask for more from his players despite playing out a goalless draw against Maritzburg United on Tuesday.
The Buccaneers created many opportunities throughout the Premiership clash and came close to breaking the deadlock when Justin Shonga's effort hit the crossbar before flirting with the goal-line, but in the end they were unable to produce the crucial strike.
"We like to make it difficult, my middle name is Mlungisi [meaning; the one who fixes], so I think sometimes the players try and test how much I can fix certain things, so it's a test to see how difficult they can make things for me, but we keep going and we try to fix," Mokwena told SuperSport TV.
"First chance in the first half with Kabelo Dlamini one-on-one with the goalkeeper and of course [Richard] Ofori makes a very good save and well deserved Man of the Match [award] because he made a lot of top saves to keep them in the game.
"We created a lot of chances and that chance of [Justin] Shonga that hit the crossbar, I still have to analyse and check but from where I was sitting, maybe not the whole circumference [of the ball] crossed the line but from where I'm sitting it looks like it's over the goal-line but I stand to be corrected, I don't know."
Asked whether it's a big problem for Pirates that Happy Jele will not be available to face Kaizer Chiefs after getting sent off in the 61st minute, Mokwena added: "Not really, we've got enough ammunition, we've got 34 players at Orlando Pirates, so we don't complain about losing anybody.
"Today we didn't have [Thembinkosi] Lorch from suspension, we didn't have [Mthokozisi] Dube from suspension but we managed to put on a strong team on the pitch.
"They gave their all to win the game, that's all you can ask for, even when they were one man down, ten versus 11, you couldn't really tell once more which team was man short, so like I said, Mlungisi needs to go back to the drawing board."
- TeamTalk Media
