MAMELODI Sundowns' coach Johan Neeskens says he's not concerned about his team losing their grip on the Premier League race following their second successive defeat in less than a week.

The Brazilians lost 1-0 to Maritzburg United on Saturday night in Port Elizabeth following a 2-1 reverse against Platinum Stars three days before. The only reason second-placed Downs are still two points behind leaders Orlando Pirates is because Bucs could not capitalise on The Brazilians' defeat, being held goalless by Bidvest Wits in Saturday's late game.

Sundowns conceded the PSL lead that they held for most of this season to Pirates when they were beaten by Platinum Stars on Wednesday night. Their inability in the second half of the season to put away lesser opponents has brought into question the Pretoria team's title credentials. But Neeskens believes his side will find their killer instinct in the last four matches of the season.

"If we were playing badly and not creating chances then I would be worried. But our problem has not been playing badly, but just not scoring," Neeskens said. "There are four games to go and anything can happen. I've said before that no team will win all of their last four matches. We just have to concentrate on winning our own games and not thinking about what the other teams are doing."

He said his players were fatigued on Saturday night from playing four matches in 10 days, and struggled to lift themselves.

His counterpart at United, Ernst Middendorp, though, expressed surprise at Neeskens's view that Sundowns had been dominant, and said The Team of Choice deserved their victory.

"Sundowns had to work very hard to try to dominate this game. And that was even when we had players like Kurt Lentjies and Rhees Evans unavailable. The guys did a fantastic job and we deserved three points," he said.