Orlando Pirates assistant coach Fadlu Davids is desperate to improve the way the club have been starting matches.

They go into the MTN8 semifinal second leg against rivals Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on Sunday looking to protect a 3-0 lead.

Since the beginning of the new season, Pirates have made slow starts in all their matches, only to recover in the middle of the games.

Against Chiefs last week, they also made a slow start and Chiefs nearly punished them as they got two big chances earlier on through Leonardo Castro and Khama Billiat but missed those opportunities.

It was also a similar case against Bloemfontein Celtic on Wednesday, where Phunya Sele Sele dominated the match and Pirates had to wait for the hour mark to register their first shot on target. They also had to wait for the last 15 minutes to get a winner through substitute Siphesihle Ndlovu.

Davids is demanding improvement ahead of the Chiefs match.

“We can’t accept a little bit of fatigue, allowing us to start slow. That’s where our mindset is going to be different,” Davids said. “If we are going to play consecutive games every three days, we have to be able to perform from the start of the game until the end.

“The players that came in made the impact in the second half to ultimately get the results against Celtic.”

The 39-year-old feels that the positive thing is that they now have a settled starting XI.  

“If you take our first three matches, in every match there have been three to five changes – [against] Cape Town City then going up to AmaZulu, Stellenbosch and a much better performance against Kaizer Chiefs. Now you want to build continuity.”

Pirates could go into the return leg on Sunday against Amakhosi without Thembinkosi Lorch and Terrence Dzvukamanja, who were both substituted against Celtic.

Lorch suffered a knee injury while Dzvukamanja was concussed.

“It does not look good for both players. We will get a report from the doctor,” Davids said. “Lorch will go for a scan and we will reassess what the next step is.”