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Golden Arrows coach Steve Komphela looked to statistics to make sense of their 7-1 defeat to Orlando Pirates on Saturday night.
The KZN outfit looked out of sorts against their Soweto counterpart, with the loss denying them a chance to climb further up the table and into the Top 8 bracket.
But Komphela argued the margin made it look worse than it was.
"In all honesty, this may guide us or maybe become something where we say, okay, let's look at the numbers in terms of goals that we conceded, it's heavy. Pirates had 19 shots, we had 10, possession 56%, we were 44%, passes they made 497, we made 388, accuracy of passes they made 82%, we made are 80%, fouls they committed 11, we are on nine, yellows [yellow cards] 3-1, reds [red cards] nothing and all that, corners we had six, they had three," Komphela said.
The Arrows coach added it was necessary to be measured in both his dressing room and the press conference.
"Yes, you have to feel bad. Nobody wants to lose by a margin of six goals but again you have to be more out of your emotions and be more in your thinking and say, were we really that bad? Performance wise not really. In terms of goals, and mistakes we committed I think we were disastrous. If we look at just before they scored, we had had a chance, Malinga [Kagiso] fluffed that, they took it, they went on, they scored," he added.
Komphela, who took over at Arrows after leaving Moroka Swallows early last month, said he was not trying to make excuses.
"First half, I think, there were three clear-cut chances, big chances that you say scoring those makes a big difference. Maybe you go to the dressing room 3-3, so be it. Let it be a match and also there's a ball that came from the keeper, Nguse [Lungelo], the striker could have controlled and put in the net but he just placed it. Sibiya's [Nduduzo] one from the left, you count many of them. Now, I'm not trying to justify that we lost by seven goals but we don't deserve it. We made mistakes, we needed to be punished."
