Orlando Pirates have been struggling since their MTN8 victory, with back-to-back losses against Mamelodi Sundowns and Cape Town City extending their losing streak in the league to three matches. However, Pirates defender Tapelo Xoki insists that the team’s performance has not dropped.
“Nothing much has changed, it’s just that we’ve analyzed the games and we know where we went wrong,” Xoki said in a press conference. “Sometimes football doesn’t have a comments column. How we lost the previous game is still something that, as a football person you understand, but when you watch it again, you’re still like, ‘Aargh, we were not supposed to lose that game’. But we did. And we understand football that sometimes it’s like that. You can play your best football and still lose. So it’s a matter of us just keeping positive and try to get over this period that we’re in.”
The former Usuthu skipper also revealed that the team had discussed such periods happening in pre-season, and he believes that if they can turn things around, they have the quality to go on a run. “You get one of these along the way in the season, we did have a chat during pre-season that we may encounter times like these, so we just have to pull together, stay focused and stay positive,” he said. “Because we know if we stay positive and turn things around we can go on a run, so we just have to keep working hard and keep positive.”
Pirates dropped down to eighth on the standings after their two consecutive losses and will have an opportunity to bounce back in their first home match of the season against Golden Arrows on Saturday.
