AmaZulu coach Benni McCarthy is tired of drawing matches, and he wants his team to start picking up the maximum points.

McCarthy let his feelings known after the 1-1 draw against Maritzburg United in the KwaZulu-Natal derby at the Harry Gwala Stadium at the weekend, which was their third draw in succession, and eighth in 13 DStv Premiership games.

Luvuyo Memela scored an early goal for Usuthu in the derby, and they looked to be on their way to clinching the three points until the late equaliser by Amadou Soukouna denied them maximum points. “I’m frustrated. We deserved better and deserved more out of this game. We got a draw where we should have won the game,” said a visibly disappointed McCarthy.

McCarthy was also not happy with the match officials in the derby and felt that his side should have had a penalty. “When you are playing against 12 men, then there is not much you can do. Everything went in favour of the opposition.

"My team did not have a chance to get the penalty shout and all that. I feel sorry for the players because they work hard. We created chances and dominated the game. We failed to kill off the game, and the opposition got a late chance to get their noses back into the game with a goal they did not deserve,”

McCarthy rued their series of missed chances as Usuthu stretched their winless run against Maritzburg to seven-and-a-half years in the league.

“Three games, three draws ... it’s not looking good. We have to go back to the drawing board. We need to pick up wins. The draws are not good for us. We have to turn them into wins starting against Royal AM (on Saturday),” added McCarthy.

Maritzburg coach Ernst Middendorp was equally frustrated with the match officials and expressed his frustrations after the derby stalemate.

“We got a throw-in, and the assistant referee pointed it to the other side. I get a little bit irritated with what I see on the field. I decided to let it go and calm down a little bit,” said a furious Middendorp.