Chippa United head coach Luc Eymael confirmed on Sunday that the club had filed a complaint about match officiating in their 1-1 draw with Sekhukhune United in the Betway Premiership last week.
But he now believes what transpired is a thing of the past and that the club should shift focus to their coming league games and moving out of the relegation zone.
This is an about-turn on the sentiments he expressed after that game on Wednesday.
The Belgian was the first person to voice concerns about referee Philangenkosi Khumalo’s officiating after he awarded two penalties in the final 15 minutes to Sekhukhune.
Eymael questioned the first penalty and believed that defender Sean Ndlovu did not commit a foul inside the box.
SABC Sport and Farpost reports confirmed that Chippa United had written to the PSL and Safa accusing Khumalo of bias in the second half, claiming “every major decision favoured Sekhukhune”, and raising concerns around his integrity.
“I don’t want to talk about that. That game is finished. Other people can do the job. I think everybody saw what happened there,” Eymael said after Chippa’s goalless draw against Stellenbosch on Sunday.
“I don’t want to come back to that. He [Khumalo] is a human being, it is normal.
“It was an emotional game, and it is normal. Sometimes you complain after the game but also you have to feel the tactics we were using.
“You have to adapt to your opponent; you cannot open up the space against Sekhukhune who are number one in the league. That is part of the soccer.,”
The draw against Stellenbosch was Chippa’s third of the league this season and means they remain on the bottom of the standings with six points.
“It was our first clean sheet of the league, that is a positive point,” Eymael said.
“Both Stellies and Chippa were offensive. We had a good shape, unfortunately we were not clinical in the box.
“In terms of the rest, we tried a lot. We knew that Stellenbosch were going to try and counter us on the break, and they did.
“It was not a bad game, but we now have to improve.
’Game after game we have to collect something, we have been making some silly mistakes, we finally now have a clean sheet.
“We have to be clinical in the box because in the game we had some opportunities.
“We have improved since the beginning I would say, we have to stay on a good track and qualify in the Carling Cup,” he said.
Chippa’s next game is against Richards Bay on Sunday, but that will be a cup tie in the Carling Knockout round of 16.
Daily Dispatch
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