Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic believes his players deserved all three points against Baroka, but admitted they lacked finesse in the final third.

The Sea Robbers missed out on the opportunity to move level on points with table toppers Bidvest Wits by their 1-1 draw at the Orlando Stadium on Tuesday night.

Pirates went behind early in the encounter, courtesy of Matome Mabeba hitting the back of the net with a superb free kick, and had to fight back, eventually scoring the equaliser with six minutes left through Vincent Pule.

Speaking after the game, the Serbian coach said he felt his team his team deserved to win the encounter, but also praised their mentality to continue fighting to secure the late draw.

‘Football is not about what you deserve, but what you get. If it was about deserving, we believe we deserved to win, but football is like that,’ Sredojevic told SuperSport TV,

‘From one shot on target, the opponent got the goal. Before we conceded that goal, we were supposed to be up. We did not lose our heads. They had two points of defending, one point was to be tight and defend in numbers and on the other side they were a bit delaying the time and going on the ground and whatever.

‘Whenever we had momentum, they calmed it down. However, we believed. I need to give credit to the players. We scored that equalising goal, wishing to win, but it was not meant to be. We need to pick this and know that in football it is not what you deserve, but what you get.

‘We had possession and passion going around [the box], but we needed to have that fertility. We needed to attack the ball the way we have scored and have the second line of attack.

‘That factor was missing, that essence [of] finesse in the last third. We had many tries, but that finesse [was lacking]. You have it, you’re winning,’ he concluded.