SuperSport United assistant coach Andre Arendse felt his side deserved “something out of it” following their “efforts” against Mamelodi Sundowns.

Matsatsantsa suffered their fifth defeat in the DStv Premiership campaign following their 1-0 defeat to Tshwane rivals Sundowns at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday evening.

Peter Shalulile’s goal proved the difference as SuperSport dropped down to fifth place in the league standings with 22 points from 15 games, while Sundowns opened a 14-point lead at the top with 37 points after 15 matches.

“There’s a lot to talk about with a lot of moments in the game. But all that aside, the result aside for a second. I’ve got to commend the players,” Arendse told SuperSport TV after the game.

“We asked them to compete in this game today as under strength as we were going into the game with some notable names missing from the starting line-up.

“We asked them to compete, they did that with no arguments. No excuses and sometimes results go for you and sometimes they don’t. I was just speaking to the guys after the game.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallows because I thought we deserved something out of it just for effort alone, so very, very happy with the performance of everyone.

“I think everybody gave their all to the extent that we literally had to make substitutions because there was cramps and injuries and we got to prevent those things so very, very proud with the performance of the guys tonight.”

He added: “And the only way we were going to create those chances for us was to press them high, press them together which we did.

“We locked them in certain areas of the game and when we did win balls for the most part we created something. We created half chances and we created chances.

“We got to be a little bit more clinical in front of goal, but that will come we working hard constantly around that with the players.”