Orlando Pirates coach Mandla Ncikazi has apologised to the Buccaneers faithful for losing to arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs twice in one term.

Having beaten them 2-1 in the first round in November, Chiefs completed a rare league double over Pirates by outwitting them via a similar score line at Orlando Stadium at the weekend. Reeve Frosler and Eric Mathoho netted for Amakhosi, while Kwame Peprah struck for the Sea Robbers.

Ncikazi wasn’t ashamed to say sorry to the “Happy People”.

“I just want to take this opportunity to apologise to the Happy People, the supporters of Orlando Pirates, management and everybody who likes the club. You can’t lose twice to Chiefs in one season. The supporters of Pirates don’t deserve what happened today [on Saturday] it’s highly disappointing and on behalf of the technical team I am disappointed and I apologise,” said Ncikazi.

 However, Ncikazi hasn’t thrown in the towel that they can still finish second. The Pirates coach feels they must just convert their chances if they’re to achieve their goal of being number two on the standings by the end of the season.

“It’s possible [to finish as runners-up], we are not playing badly, it’s just that in the final third we don’t take decisions correctly. If we improve that, it’s still highly possible to finish second,” noted Ncikazi.

He is of the view that though they weren’t in their element, they were better than Chiefs, highlighting the difference that the visitors managed to find the back of the net twice while they struggled to convert their chances.

“The most disappointing part is that Chiefs scored the two goals but we should have scored more. It was not the best game from us, but again not because the opponent was better than us. They just scored two goals but we created better chances,” said the Pirates mentor.