Following the defeat to Supersport United on Friday night, Moroka Swallow head coach Steve Komphela dropped a bombshell as he revealed that his troops hadn’t trained for the past 10 days.
Swallows looked poised for a victory in the DStv Premiership game at Dobsonville Stadium after taking the lead early in the second half through Gabadinho Mhango.
But two goals by Tendamudzimu Matodzi and Etiosa Ighodaro in a quick four-minute span for SuperSport turned the tide, leaving Swallows heartbroken.
Steve Komphela, etched with the disappointment of the late collapse didn’t hold back in his post-match press conference, attributing the defeat directly to the off-field turmoil that has engulfed the club.
The Dube Birds’ coach was reluctant to state the reasons as to why the club’s players didn’t not pitch up for training for 10 days. However, indications are that the Soweto side has failed to play players their salaries.
KOMPHELA SAYS HE HAD TO CONVINCE PLAYERS TO HONOUR SUPERSPORT GAME
“A difficult match to be honest. After leading for so long but we concede two goals in the last minutes,” said Komphela. “In my opinion we wouldn’t have done justice to football, we would have defied the odds of playing for so long after not having trained for 10 days and beat a top team in the PSL.
“I would be lying if I said we planned and prepared, we haven’t been training for 10 days.
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“I had to send a voice note that everybody must report for duty and find a way because we cannot (miss the fixture). “To be honest, it would have been bad if we didn’t honour the fixture or something worse than this happens.
“Okay, the result is bad, but do you want to tell me that we could have gone worse than this? “I think in the past there was a match where Santos got three points from us, and we didn’t honour the fixture. It happened in the past and it can’t happen again,” he said. “We need to respect the game and respect those who value the game. Part of that, you take a bashing trying to protect the game that everybody else tries to protect.”