An exasperated SuperSport United coach Stuart Baxter stopped short of admitting his team may have played itself out of the running for league honours.

Having suffered a third consecutive defeat after their 1-0 loss to defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns on Wednesday night‚ SuperSport haven't won a league game since February 25 when they beat Highlands Park 1-0 in Thembisa.

“There's many ways of winning the Championship and we were well in the race‚" Baxter said.

"I think we're on the fringes now. With the two wins against us‚ Sundowns have had a massive boost because they were slipping away.

"They were looking tired before the Derbies and the adrenaline they got from the matches has done them good.

"They are resting this weekend and they could be good shape‚” the Briton said.

“There are backdoors left‚ right and centre and we've got to keep on making sure if they slip up‚ we have to make sure we're behind them.”

Baxter's side were not the doormats of Loftus Versfeld but once Sundowns found an extra gear‚ it was always going to be a case of when they were going to score and not if.

SuperSport were lucky to escape two early chances from Percy Tau and Themba Zwane that would have ended the game as a contest in the first five minutes.

That they conceded a goal late in the game from a set-piece infuriated Baxter‚ given that he has tall timbers in his back four.

While he criticised the origin of the freekick‚ the goal should not have happened.

“The freekick was not a freekick‚ it was an embarrassing decision but you know when there is a set-play at a critical phase of the game‚ there's a high possibility of that ending in the back of the net.

"We were not organised‚ didn't get set quickly enough‚ didn't defend our goal bravely enough and we ended up losing from a set-play‚” Baxter said.

“We started playing with freedom after we conceded and moved the ball quickly.

"I'm disappointed with how we conceded but we worked very hard.” - TMG Digital/TMG Sport