Kalisto Pasuwa provided his reaction to Nyasa Big Bullets’ TNM Super League draw at home against Civil Service United on Sunday.
The People’s Team dropped two points at Kamuzu Stadium following a 1-1 stalemate with the Servants, conceding with 13 minutes to go in the second half after Anthony Mfune had put Pasuwa’s side in the lead in the opening period.
Report: Bullets 1-1 Civil Service
Bullets collected a point four days after defeating Red Lions 3-1 in the league and eight days after punishing Mighty Mukuru Wanderers 4-0 in the Blantyre derby to reach the final of the FDH Bank Cup.
Read the head coach’s verdict after the match…
On conceding late…
We have been talking about complacency in our camp. At times when leading, we think everything can be okay and we ended up conceding the goal in the late stages of the match. It wasn’t over yet and we needed to do more in order to secure the points, but again that’s the painful part of football where you drop points.
On the team struggling in the second half of the match…
You saw every time we are conceding goals from transition. We are attacking and then we lose the ball to our opponents who end up capitalizing from the only chance they created, so it’s something which I have been saying that when your opponents are pressing, you need to put pressure by counter-pressing and that’s exactly what we failed to do today, especially in the second half where we were always second on the ball.
On whether the team dropped points due to pressure…
No, we can’t be talking about pressure at all. It all goes down to some of the players, who, when given an opportunity to play they should demonstrate that they can play for the team. When we substituted Kesten Simbi [following an injury], there were plenty of mistakes at the back and that’s one thing we need to work out in terms of depth so that when injuries hit us, we shouldn’t be exposed.
On the congested fixture which will see his side playing a fourth consecutive game within ten days…
It is what it is. We just need to prepare in order for us to collect points because games are coming thick and thin. We can’t use this as an excuse, we just need to step up and adapt to the tight schedule so that it ends well for us.
