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Baxter denies apologising for beating Pirates

Davids decries refereeing and says Bucs deserved a penalty

Sihle Ndebele Journalist
Stuart Baxter, head coach of Kaizer Chiefs.
Stuart Baxter, head coach of Kaizer Chiefs.
Image: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix

Orlando Pirates co-coach Fadlu Davids gave the impression that poor officiating was the major reason Kaizer Chiefs beat them 2-1 in a league match at FNB Stadium on Saturday, contending that his Amakhosi counterpart Stuart Baxter sympathised with them.

Keagan Dolly put Chiefs ahead just five minutes into the second half before converting from the spot to seal the deal at the death, cancelling out Linda Mntambo’s 87th-minute equaliser. Chiefs’ penalty was awarded when Pirates centre-back Olisa Ndah pulled Khama Billiat inside the box.

Davids is of the view that referee Victor Hlungwani should have also awarded them a penalty.

“The opposition coach, Stuart Baxter, came to us afterwards and apologised for the penalty [that was converted by Dolly] and also apologised to us for not getting a penalty. It tells you the story. What happened is a really unfortunate situation,” said Davids after the game.

“[We enjoyed] total dominance from start to finish, that’s number one. But you have to be able to score the goals. I am disappointed not to get the result in the end. Even when we got the equaliser, we were the only team going for the winner.”

Baxter denied that he apologised to Davids for decisions that went against the Buccaneers.

“Let me clear up what I had to say to Fadlu after the game because I went to him and I said ‘yeah, these refereeing decisions can go both ways... they are nondescript. So there was not apologising for anything. It’s not in my nature to apologise for winning,” said Baxter.

Dolly scored the first goal after being teed up by Billiat, who benefited from a schoolboy back-pass error by Thulani “Tyson” Hlatshwayo. The glaring blunder earned the Bucs skipper criticism, especially because he also committed costly mistakes last term. Even so, Davids defended Tyson.

“You can’t point at Hlatshwayo because we had to score... we had to be 2-0 up maybe in the first half,” noted the Pirates mentor.

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