The referee couldn’t really control the game, says Benni McCarthy as AmaZulu difficult season continues

AmaZulu FC head coach – Benni McCarthy has chastised match officials after seeing his 10-men Amaqhawe drew 0-0 with SuperSport United on Tuesday, taking their winless streak in the 2021/22 season to five matches across all competitions.

AmaZulu player, Tercious Malepe was shown a straight red card by referee Thando Ndzandzeka in the 74th minute for a strong challenge on Jamie Webber.

But McCarthy chided the referee during his post-match press conference, saying that Thando Ndzandzeka and his assistants failed to bring the game under proper control.

“It was a very physical game which I think went a little bit over physical because the referee couldn’t really control the game,” said McCarthy.

“He didn’t have the game under control. It was one-way traffic, everything was going in favour of the one team and I think frustrations grew a little bit.

“The tackles went flying in and I thought a clean challenge, a clean tackle from Tercious, winning the ball and not even touching the opposition [was punished].

“But yes, that’s the mentality our South African players have these days and then you wonder why they underachieve, why they are mediocre because that’s their behaviour.

“Where you want to get opposition players sent off because of diving and rolling over like his leg was broken when they didn’t even touch him and the referee falls for it.

“The fourth official sees it right there and he’s been speaking to the referee the whole time in his earpiece when we’re making a foul, then he tells the referee which way to go, but then he sees this situation, and nothing, then we go down to 10 men.

He, however, commended his players containing SuperSport United despite the numerical disadvantage:

“With 10 men, I think we showed heart, we showed determination, we showed grit, we showed character to stay in the game and not allow them to create one chance to go on and win the game.”

SuperSport United are second on the league table with 7 points after three games while AmaZulu are on the fifteenth position with 2 points.

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