‘We did discuss permutations’ – Dladla on away-goals confusion

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‘We did discuss permutations’ – Dladla on away-goals confusion

Aug 30, 2026 – 06:53 pm
By Kickoff writer

Golden Arrows head coach Pitso Dladla insists they did discuss the permutations with the players ahead of the second leg against Mamelodi Sundowns.

Abafana Besthende came with their tails up after winning the first-leg in Atteridgeville, but Masandawana’s superiority in the return-leg became too difficult to overcome.

To score goals against the calibre of Masandawana was remarkably not something the men from the KwaZulu-Natal province ought possible but disappointed and sad for the players who did everything to stay alive.

“Yes, it was a tough game because we expected everything that happened today. I think we just made some individual and technical errors and, we lost concentration when we were defending,” Dladla told SuperSport TV.

“But I believe the boys did very well and for us to come and score these goals it was something that we didn’t think we could do. I really, really feel sorry for the players they did everything that they could.

“We did discuss all the permutations before the game, even if you could remember the interview before the game, I was saying we need to treat this game in insolation because we’re anticipating scenarios like this if Sundowns score more than one goal because then the away-goal advantage is with them because we only scored one.

“But when I spoke to him, it did not know the real score of the game, he thought we were leading 3-2 and I said no it’s 3-3 meaning that an away-goal goes to them,” he added.

Confusion reigned at the end when Philani Khumalo’s strike brought wild celebrations and minutes wasted there could’ve been used to get back to the centre circle and resume play immediately, but it wasn’t the case.

“Like I said we were concentrated on the bench, we knew that we needed another goal after that one, so we were trying to push them even those few minutes that we played we were trying to tell them let’s have more bodies up front.

“Let’s go to advanced areas, but I think we can’t falter anything, it was not meant for us to go through, but the boys did very well,” Dladla said.