Orlando Pirates caretaker coach Eric Tinkler bemoaned the hectic fixture list after his side dished out one of their worst performances this season in their 2-0 defeat to Bidvest Wits on Wednesday night.

Pirates next face Gabonese club FC Mounana in the CAF Confederation Cup first-leg second-round clash on Sunday, after beating Uganda Authority Revenue in the previous round. The Buccaneers will leave for Gabon on Friday and return on Wednesday.

Their Absa Premiership match against University of Pretoria, which was scheduled for Tuesday, has now been moved to next Friday.

"Have a look at the fixtures and ask yourself what is behind it. We expect these guys to dust themselves off two days later and perform at 120%? It's not easy to do that," Tinkler said.

"We have to travel to Africa on Friday. We get back on Wednesday and then we play again on Friday. That means I get one day to work with the boys. But I don't want to use that as an excuse because we try to give the guys as much recuperation as possible. But we need to start looking at our fixtures."

Pirates were blown away by quick goals in the first half by Wits player Calvin Kadi.

"The response from everyone after the first goal was not good," Tinkler said. "We lost our discipline and started to panic, and we gifted them the second one. We went 12 games without a loss and now it's about how quickly we bounce back. We've got four games left."