Despondency was written all over Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp’s face when he answered questions about his keeper Virgil Vries’ deleterious blunder against Cape Town City on Wednesday.

Prior to their game against City, Middendorp had fought tooth and nail to defend Vries amid his spates of costly mistakes, insisting that Amakhosi had faith in the under fire Namibia-born keeper.

But after their defeat against City, the visibly irked Middendorp made a quick U-turn about Vries' constant errors, which may have ended Chiefs' faint title hopes.

“I fully understand the facts, I’m not an idiot. You need [to fix] goalkeeping of course... I’m not sitting here [at the post-match media conference] and defending [Vries], of course I’m not happy with it [his howler],’’ said Middendorp.

“It’s happened now for the second time [referring  to his first blunder against Mamelodi Sundowns that saw the Brazilians win 2-1 in the first game of the year], what must we say? It’s nice to protect players, which is what we are doing, but on the other hand you must be capable. It was an easy punch, an easy way to handle this and that’s it.’’

The Amakhosi mentor also vented his frustration on his attackers after missing a number of clear-cut chances in their last few games, making an example of their 1-0 Nedbank Cup  first-round win over third-tier side Tornado FC.

“The first issue is not just tonight [on Wednesday] but Sunday [against Tornado] too, I don’t know how many clear opportunities we had and it’s not by accident,’’ said the German-born mentor.

Chiefs’ next match is the Soweto derby against their traditional rivals Orlando Pirates at FNB Stadium on February 9.

Middendorp dropped a hint that Vries might not be in goal in this eagerly anticipated encounter.

“We have to work it out in the next 10 days and see who is in the goalpost in the next Saturday [against Pirates],’’ noted the Chiefs coach.