Dejected coach Bernard Parker gutted after Nedbank Cup final loss

A visibly dejected Bernard Parker shared his thoughts after his first game in charge of TS Galaxy following their 2-1 loss in the Nedbank Cup final on Saturday evening. 

Galaxy came apart at the seams in the second half while Durban City found their rhythm and flowed into a comfortable lead. Not comfortable by any means in terms of margin but comfortable in the way they held Galaxy in their own half, for the most part. 

Parker’s arrival at Galaxy will have surely injected some semblance of confidence into them but for the most part, the team looked like they have looked this entire season. No spirit. They had the forward attacking capabilities but it was Durban’s belief that rose triumphant at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. 

Galaxy were chasing shadows in the second half of the game, after coming out of the tunnel on fire in the first 45 but things took a turn for the worse. Galaxy don’t go home empty handed though, they can wipe their tears away with the R2.5 million prize money they get for 2nd place. 

“Its tough. It was a tough one. We had a plan in the first half and stuck to that in terms of neutralising their attacks and stopping the players from getting behind our defence. And I thought we did well in that regard. We could have done better in the way we moved forward. 

“I told them we needed to have a calm aggressive in gaining possession and moving forward. We worked on our set plays and we ended up getting a goal from that so its good. Then in the half time I told them we can’t throw away this opportunity that God has given us,” Parker explained. 

“In the second half, we tried to be effective by moving the ball sideways instead of going forward which we didn’t do much. They scored a second goal from our error so we had to change our tactics a bit and tried to spread their defence but yeah. That’s football. I think we just need to take a break and then focus on the rest of the games coming this season,” Parker said. 

Jehran Naidoo is sports reporter for Independent Media and social media coordinator of the our YouTube channel The Clutch.