Johnson: I've seen a better Chiefs than this

by Staff Reporter

Sunday Oct 29, 2023. 11:05

Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Cavin Johnson admits they are a work in progress after kicking off his tenure with a 2-1 defeat to Golden Arrows at the Mpumalanga Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Johnson took over the reins from sacked Molefi Ntseki on Monday, but was unable to prevent the Glamour Boys from suffering their fifth loss of the DStv Premiership season.

Amakhosi didn’t make the best of starts in Mpumalanga after goalkeeper Brandon Petersen allowed the ball to slip under his boot on a wet surface, which presented Know Mutizwa with a simple tap-in.

Sifiso Hlanti swiftly hit back for Chiefs three minutes later, but another mistake gifted Mutizwa the winner on 54 minutes when he pounced on a loose pass from Mduduzi Shabalala and played in Nduduzo Sibiya, who crossed for the striker to score.

Johnson felt there were some positives to take from their performance, although he insists the Soweto giants can and will improve once he gets more time with the players on the training ground.

“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the boys. They played well under the conditions that we’ve come out of, the conditions of the pitch, which was I think not a little bit bumpy but soggy in some places,” he said after the match.

“But you can’t blame that, both teams were on there. Again, I thought we had a lot of clear one-one-ones in the beginning, in the first half I thought we really should have scored some of them.

“We scored the one after going behind. That means we were actually chasing the game, but then in the second half again we lost the ball cheaply in their half and they had the counterattack and scored the one goal and they defended for their lives.

“But I’ve seen a better Chiefs than I’ve seen tonight so we’re going to work on it and hopefully we get it better. The fluidity of the passing and the holding, going forward is much better and we’ll see what happens in the next game.”