It is very rare that teams emerge from defeat with an even higher degree of confidence, more especially after a cup exit. However, those are the feelings of Richards Bay coach Ronnie Gabriel, who watched as his side was eliminated from the Nedbank Cup during the round of 32 by defending champions Orlando Pirates.
The Natal Rich Boyz could not complete a second-half turnaround against the Buccaneers, having gone into the half-time break 2-0 down. Despite Yanela Mbuthuma’s 47th-minute goal, Gabriel’s men failed to convert a host of other chances they created before being sucker-punched in stoppage time by Tshegofatso Mabasa, who scored Pirates’ third of the match.
Richards Bay are currently in the bottom two of the Betway Premiership and will now place all of their focus on surviving relegation. The KwaZulu-Natal-based outfit are keen to avoid returning to the PSL promotion/relegation play-offs for a second consecutive season, having saved their top-flight status last season.
Having watched his team place a high-flying Pirates side on the ropes for a significant portion of the second half, Gabriel felt his team could walk with their heads held high for the rest of the season.
“Pirates are a team with high quality,” he said, “a top team, and we can’t take that away from them. They’re having a good season both in Africa and the local league so they're one of the best performers on the continent at the moment.”
“Looking at our second-half display, it gives us encouragement that we can compete against the big guns. We do have the ability and are capable of doing it; it’s just a matter of being more consistent, starting the game with more confidence, and taking more risks, and the results will come our way.”
What many expected to be a walk in the park from a form perspective, turned out to be even trickier for a Pirates side seemingly untouchable in cup competitions. Having expressed a fearlessness for Pirates ahead of the game, Gabriel could not help but be despondent at his side’s luck in the match, having produced one of their best performances of the season but still lost on the day.
“You guys know better, when you’re down there (fortunes never favour you). The top teams even have half chances going for them, but when you’re down there like us, the ball just doesn’t find the back of the net,” he expressed.
“I don’t know if it’s Murphy’s law or whatever, but it’s up to us to change it. We have to continue believing that we can turn things around and score goals.”
He further added, “I’m not going to lie, it’s very painful because we work on these things daily. We create these types of scenarios, but we have to keep pushing them because there are solutions.”