Pirates assistant coach rues Maela's red card: 'We could have got more out of the game'

Orlando Pirates' assistant coach Sergio Almenara said that, if they hadn't conceded Innocent Maela's red card, they could have gained more from their Soweto derby encounter against Kaizer Chiefs instead of a fifth consecutive derby loss.

Maela was sent off on the hour mark by referee Abongile Tom for fouling Chiefs' striker Christian Saile.

Saile, however, could count himself lucky not to be sent off in the first half for a horrible tackle on Maela. It was a tackle that saw Saile nearly coming under attack from the Pirates bench, but the referee chose to award a yellow card.

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It was a lack of guts from Tom that would have significant ramifications for Pirates later in the game when he sent off Pirates' captain.

Almenara, who was on the bench as coach Jose Riveiro was suspended and had to watch the game from the media tribune, said they also could've played better.

"I can't talk about last season, but I can talk about this season, but I think in the first game, the result was unfair," Almenara said.

"It wasn't our best performance and I think basically, in this game, it was the same. We tried to fight in the early minutes of the red card.

"I think if we had 11 players, we could have got more out of the game than we did."

The 1-0 defeat, courtesy of Olisa Ndah's 89th-minute own-goal, was Pirates' fifth consecutive Soweto derby league defeat.

Ndah, who came off the bench as part of a defensive replacement to shore up Pirates' defence in Maela's absence, suffered his third mishap against Chiefs.

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He made two other errors in previous derbies