Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler gave a frank assessment of his side’s performance following their 1-0 loss against Maritzburg United, saying that they ‘were very poor.’

The Citizens relinquished their spot at the summit of the table following their 1-0 loss at the Harry Gala Stadium on Monday afternoon and the former Orlando Pirates mentor admits that his side performed well below-par.

‘It was far from pretty and there are no excuses and we were just not good enough,’ he told reporters after the game.

‘We didn’t put in a performance that we should have.

‘We’ve been very good the whole year and this is obviously our first loss this year but I can’t really point the finger at one person. Collectively we were very, very poor.

‘Tactically, we were poor, decision making, we were poor, and I don’t think it was Maritzburg putting us under pressure. I don’t think Maritzburg’s shape was good, no. We just didn’t show up.

‘For that, I must take responsibility because the (Cape Town City] players looked very flat, we didn’t look motivated, we panicked every time we got on the ball,’ he added.

Tinker called for his side to bounce back from their defeat and with four games left to be played in the campaign, the 46-year-old mentor insists that the title race is far from over.

‘There’s so much can happen and there are four games [remaining for City], and we’re just going to focus on the extra one now and try and get the result against Free State Stars.

‘What is important is that we need to bounce back from this and bring the guys back to earth, and hopefully we see a better performance in the next game.

Cape Town welcome relegation-threatened Free State Stars in their next Absa Premiership encounter at the Athlone Stadium on Friday night with kickoff set for 20:00.

Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix