Chippa United head coach Brandon Truter has lamented his team's growing tendency of partially dropping their intensity when facing unfavoured teams in the Betway Premiership.
Truter described the loss as a coach killer as Kruger's goal through Sipho Sibiya came through almost at the sound of the final whistle.
In that moment, Chippa failed to clear their lines in defence and allowed Sibiya to pounced on them.
Truter felt his side did not pitch up on the day as he would have liked, intensity wise, compared with their previous two performances in the league.
They won against TS Galaxy and drew with Mamelodi Sundowns, but conceded in the last minutes against Kruger.
“We can’t be a team that performs against the African champions and the likes of league champions Orlando Pirates, but when we play teams like Galaxy and Kruger, the intensity drops.
“We have to respect our opponents, they are in the PSL and next to us," Truter said.
“We have to stay there with them and be disciplined, play with them with the same level we would if we play a Sundowns.
“We must concentrate and not let our guard down because that is what is missing.”
The other matter Truter raised was his side's inability to convert their chances.
He felt in some box entries, they could have done better and poached some goals.
After the Kruger game, Chippa became the second team with the lowest goals scored in the league so far after eight matches.
They have only four goals — Golden Arrows with three, lead the unimpressive charts.
This shows Chippa’s lack of a quality striker or an elite goal-poaching attacking midfielder.
“Game after game, it’s chance after chance.
“We had box entries but we came again with nothing to show for that.
“In the last game against Galaxy which we won, it was Harold Majadibodu and Abbubaker Mobara who created the chance — that’s centre back to centre back.
"Now you need to ask yourself why is that.
“We create challenges in training for ourselves to replicate in the game.
“We had a big chance in the first half as well as in the end, we could have scored.
”They only had one chance and they took it,” Truter said.
The defeat means Chippa remain ninth on the log with eight points in their eight outings.
Though it was a tough pill to swallow, Truter said they had to quickly remedy their problems up front before Chippa’s next game against Golden Arrows in the Carling Black Label Cup this weekend in KwaZulu-Natal.
