Ahead of the CAF Confederation Cup playoff first leg match against TP Mazembe at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday, Marumo Gallants coach Dan Malesela has warned some of his underperforming players that they will be dropped if they do not improve.

Malesela was not happy with their performance during their  goalless DStv Premiership draw with Maritzburg United at the same venue on Wednesday.

And he is now demanding immediate improvement against Mazembe in the first leg at 4pm if they are to have a chance of progressing to the group stages.

“Very disappointed, I must say it’s unbelievable. The performance was way below par. Our thinking was just off,” Malesela told the club's media department.

“Urgency was not there, I don’t know [why], but we will get to the bottom of this so that one understands what was happening. No instructions were taken in that game and it didn’t work well for us.

“It doesn’t really reflect us. We played far stronger teams than this and we performed far better than what we did today [Wednesday]. We would see some people need to sit, maybe they will learn.”

What disappointed Malesela the most was the failure to convert their chances, including the missed penalty by Thabo Mnyamane with 10 minutes left.

The coach feels they should have done better in front of goal and this is something he will be working on improving before the Confederation Cup match.

“And then we missed a penalty, free header and across. I mean, how many misses we must have so that we can win? It’s not fair on us and not fair on the club. We need to improve, we can’t go on like this,” he said.

“Players must learn to take responsibility. I mean really, it is disappointing.”

Gallants’ form in the continental competition has been impressive compared to the league and they will hope to show the same against on Sunday.

They have already caused an upset when they knocked AS Vita out of this competition and will be confident of upsetting Mazembe on Sunday and advancing to the group stages.