Venda Football Club (VFC) are still coming to terms with their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Kruger United in their Motsepe Foundation Championship League match at Thohoyandou Stadium last Saturday.
The defeat was VFC's first in their last five league matches.
The game was played under protest. VFC requested that the match officials pause the game towards the end of the first half, so the referee could append his signature to protest documents. In the protest, VFC alleged that Kruger United's assistant coach, Mr Simon Marange, was not in possession of a registration card.
Marange had been shouting instructions from the team's bench from the start of the game and immediately left the technical bench after the protest. VFC head coach Mr Clinton Larsen described the team's performance as their worst of the season. He singled out the defenders, saying the first line of defence was shaky.
Larsen added that his team had been fortunate not to concede at least five goals because of their poor defending. While he said blaming the match officials was not his style, he felt the referee had shown some bias.
Kruger United head coach Abram Mongoya, however, said his team had deserved the win, praising their game plan as superb.
Ebrahim Seedat scored the visitors' opening goal. VFC fought back through Deolin Mekoa, but Mancoba Zwane later scored a brace to seal the victory.
Maunavhathu dropped to 10th position with the defeat, while Kruger United remain second with 25 points, two behind Milford FC.