Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic has taken full responsibility for their 3-0 defeat by SuperSport United in the Absa Premiership on Wednesday.

The Buccaneers suffered their first defeat of the new campaign when they went down to SuperSport after conceding goals through a brace from Bradley Grobler and a goal from Ghampani Lungu at the Mbombela Stadium.

The defeat drops the Soweto giants down to ninth place in the Absa Premiership standings, with three points from their first two games of the 2019-20 season.

Sredojevic insists that his side fought to the end to find a goal to get them back in the game. but could not penetrate the United defence.

‘A tough competitive match, we owe our supporters an apology after losing in this fashion,’ Sredojevic told SuperSport TV after the game.

‘Maybe the crucial moment of the game happened when we conceded the first goal, we were risking there [at the back] and that put us in a position to go into the risk.

‘At half time we put on [Thembinkosi] Lorch and [Luvuyo] Memela more in offence, still not fully ready. We were putting balls in the right areas but we not effective. Something, somewhere is not OK in our attacking part.

‘We were opening spaces, the opponent scored in those spaces. We were fighting until the end to find the goals but we did not succeed,’ he continued.

‘In any way, I’d like to take the responsibility of this loss to myself. We need this 72 hours [before] our match against Highlands Park to regroup, go back to the drawing board and analyse. We need to inject new energy, have a shock therapy in a way. The second match of the season, but this is happening. Pirates had chances.’

Orlando Pirates will now turn their attention to the MTN8 when they welcome Highlands Park to the Orlando Stadium on Saturday, with kick-off set for 6pm.