SuperSport United mentor Kaitano Tembo says that referee Daniel Bennett apologised to him after he failed to produce a red card for Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune in their Telkom Knockout quarter-final clash.

Ramahlwe Mphahlele netted the only goal of the game as Chiefs advanced to the semi-finals of the competition, but things could have gone differently had referee Bennett correctly sent off the Chiefs shot-stopper.

SuperSport were denied a clear-cut goal-scoring opportunity when Aubrey Modiba’s goalbound effort was kept out by Khune, who was clearly outside the box for the infringement.

Instead of giving a red card, Bennett incorrectly cautioned the Bafana Bafana international and Tembo says that the referee had apologised to him.

‘At half-time, I spoke to the referee [Bennett]. I wanted to find out what his thoughts were. He apologised to me and said he made a wrong decision. He was not really sure why he could not make the call,’ he told Times Live.

‘I was [too] far [away] to see what was happening there.

‘You have to give the referee the benefit of the doubt because I do not think he did it deliberately. He needed to be sure … it’s a big game and big stage, so sometimes when you make decisions you need to be very sure,’ he concluded.

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