‘It’s painful, we understand’: Pirates assistant Almenara after another derby defeat

Almenara said Bucs struggled in the first half and were improving after the break until captain Innocent was a red-carded for a lunging challenge on Chiefs' dangerous striker Christian Saile on the hour.

“We think the first half was for Chiefs, we were struggling defensively and couldn’t find how to neutralise the way they were attacking us, and offensively we couldn’t find the spaces to find advantages.

“At halftime we fixed those things and in our opinion the start of the second half was good for us. We felt better and that we could take the game.

“Unfortunately the red card came and it forced us to make changes so we could get some advantage for the low block and some counterattacking with fast players who are able to find spaces behind the backline.”

Soon after the dismissal of Maela, Pirates introduced Olisa Ndah, whose 89th-minute own goal later proved decisive, to neutralise the back line and sacrificed attacker Thembinkosi Lorch.

“We needed to readjust because of the red card of 'Inno', we needed one centreback and then we needed some fresh legs because we were going to spend a lot of time in the low block,” Almenara explained about replacing Lorch.

Bucs will aim to bounce back against Swallows at Dobsonville Stadium on Friday night (7.30pm).

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