Orlando Pirates attacker Thembinkosi Lorch was left heartbroken and says he let the team down after missing the decisive penalty in the Telkom Knockout final against Baroka.

The Bafana Bafana international picked up the man-of-the-match accolade for helping the ten-man Pirates outfit get on level terms with minutes left on the clock.

The tricky attacker, who finished as the top scorer in the Telkom Knockout campaign with four strikes, then went from hero to zero after blazing his penalty over the crossbar. That saw Pirates continue their TKO hoodoo.

‘To be honest, I’m heartbroken you know. I feel like I cost the team. The red card killed us,’ he said in post-match comments.

‘But I think after the red card we managed to play well. We were not sitting back, we were attacking them and we managed to get the second goal. Unfortunately we lost on penalties.’

‘I could have done better to score a penalty for us to go into sudden death. But it wasn’t to be.

‘We worked hard you know, to go to the penalties. Credit must go to all the guys, the technical team for believing in us. It was just not our day.

‘I’d like to say to them they must keep on supporting us. We still have three cups to play for. We’ll make them happy,’ he concluded.

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