Aubrey Ngoma has no regrets over his time at Orlando Pirates

Cape Town City winger Aubrey Ngoma says he learnt a lot during his time at Orlando Pirates despite seeing little game time under different coaches.

“I don’t think I have regrets about my time there. I learnt so much because of the type of players around you. It built my character, and valued my moments when I played,” Ngoma told IOL.

Furthermore, Ngoma admits he wasn’t what some of the coaches were looking for at the time.

“I think different coaches prefer a certain type of a player, and I wasn’t what they were looking for while I was at the club,” Ngoma said.

He joined Bucs when Augusto Palacios was an interim coach, before being replaced by Roger De Sa in 2012.

“Roger used me a bit because there were a lot of games and he was rotating the squad, but eventually I went to Mpumalanga Black Aces because Pirates wanted (Tendai) Ndoro in a swap deal,” Ngoma said.

There have been cases in the past where players and wingers of Ngoma’s calibre get overlooked for not scoring enough goals and displaying creative impetus.

“I think when you are a winger you are judged on your number, the statistics. You have to be creative and score goals, but no one really looks at the fact that you help create chances and the strikers don’t convert. In Europe at the end of the season, they give you all the stats and you can see who created the most chances, even if they were not converted,” Ngoma said.

“Here you can get overlooked because of those small details. And what ends up happening is that midfielders who play in the No.10 role gets used as wingers because their numbers are better, and that is what the coaches want, goals and clear-cut chances,” explained the left-footed winger.

“Keagan Dolly got the Bafana recognition once he started scoring goals and creating chances,” Ngoma concluded.