Mamelodi Sundowns were desperate in scrappy affair - Mngqithi on beating Jwaneng Galaxy

Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi is “not excited” that their side lacked patience as they pushed for an early goal which affected the flow of their game in Tuesday’s Caf Champions League first round, second leg 3-1 win over Jwaneng Galaxy at Loftus Versfeld.

Kermit Erasmus’ opener as well as two second half goals from Mothobi Mvala and Thapelo Morena saw Sundowns dismiss Galaxy who got their consolation from substitute Tebogo Sembowa.

After recording a 2-0 away victory, Downs proceeded to the group phase of the tournament on a 5-1 aggregate scoreline.

But Mngqithi is not too pleased in the manner they did business at home on Tuesday despite the convincing victory.

“The game was a little bit scrappy in my opinion. I was not very excited with the flow of the game itself,” Mngqithi told the media.

“I think to a certain extent we also showed desperation that we wanted to get an early goal. Even when circumstances were not allowing we never really patiently tried to keep the ball and frustrate them and tire their first line of defence.

“I felt in the later stages of the first half, that is when we started to play and put a lot of strain on their striker [Junior] Dion who was very important in their offensive play. Overall we did our work, we knew the areas to worry about.

“We did the business, it was not the most exciting game to watch for me as a coach. But I was encouraged that at least, today we managed to score three goals even though I believe we could have scored more. We are still not as clinical as one would like in front of the goals.”

Sundowns have not been fielding their best squad in the last five matches due to injuries and some medical issues.

But Mngqithi is not worried about that as he hails his squad’s depth after missing star player Themba Zwane in their last four games in which they have performed well.

“In terms of variations we present, in terms of style of play and shape are guided by the availability of players at a certain time because when we have Themba, we will obviously play differently,” said Mngqithi.

“When we have Gaston [Sirino] and Themba we will play differently and we have not had that combination. Maybe it was only in the first match against Celtic when we had both of them on the pitch. We are working on a lot of variations. But one thing that is encouraging to me and the other coaches is we have managed to give quite a number of players a chance to play.

“That is building the base where we can pick from and maybe circumstances to a certain extent have also contributed to us being forced to play all these variations in order to make sure that we have realistic depth. Not depth in numbers but there are players that never got a chance to play.

“When we give them a chance everybody asks ‘Why are you playing this one today?’ But we have broken the deadlock and people are now looking at it differently. We are trying to have a very big squad that is practically helping us to win matches. We are only reliant on 14 or 15 players throughout the season.”

Downs now shift focus to the domestic scene as they prepare to travel to Baroka FC for a Premier Soccer League match on Saturday.