While underlining they’ll fight until the end, Mamelodi Sundowns tactician Pitso Mosimane appears to have resigned to missing out on the chance of defending the league title.

During his virtual post-match media conference of their Monday’s 3-2 defeat to Cape Town City at Loftus Versfeld, Mosimane cut a dejected figure and conceded their recent uninspiring performances make it difficult for them to fancy their chances to win the championship for the third time in consecutive seasons, a feat they've accomplished before.

“The manner in which we’re going, it looks like it [the title] is going, because we’re not winning. We played three games, we’ve drawn two [and] we’ve lost one. In that context it looks sure [that the title is going],’’ said a visibly dispirited Mosimane.

Second-placed Sundowns are on 46 points, six adrift of leaders Kaizer Chiefs, with just six matches to spare. “Reality maybe, it looks sure [that they can’t win it]. But until the last game, until [it is] mathematically proven that we can’t win it we will accept it.”

The Brazilians' mentor, however, insisted they won’t just surrender without a fight. Mosimane came close to bemoaning the coronavirus-induced break for blunting their momentum. “At this point in time, we’ve got a lot of ego and lots of ambition. We are a very ambitious team that we try to win the three trophies [counting the Telkom Knockout  they've already bagged] and we still believe the two [the league and the Nedbank Cup] are still available even though this one [the league] it looks like it going out of our hands,’’ stated Mosimane.

“But that’s it, that’s football for us. That’s the story of Mamelodi Sundowns after Covid-19 or inside Covid-19, that’s reality. We should try and fight and we’ll keep going. We can’t just leave it and say ‘it’s done’, we will go for it.’’

Should Amakhosi end up walking away with the title, Mosimane has vowed he’ll accept the defeat. To clinch the championship, Chiefs need just 13 points from the possible 18 which would put them on 65 points, a point tally Downs will not reach as they can at most finish on 64 points.

“If we don’t win it, the table will say we didn’t win it and we should accept it,’’ said Jingles, as Mosimane is also known as.

Downs next face Maritzburg United at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Friday (6pm).