Johnson apologises to Chiefs’ faithful

Kaizer Chiefs Head Coach, Cavin Johnson, has apologised to AmaKhosi supporters after they were dumped out of the 2024 Nedbank Cup at the first hurdle by Motsepe Foundation Championship stragglers, Milford FC, at the FNB Stadium on Sunday night.

Milford beat Chiefs 5-4 on penalties after holding the Soweto giants to a goalless stalemate after 120 minutes. Johnson’s charges had squandered multiple goal scoring opportunities in regulation time as well as extra-time, with the most glaring of those being a Ranga Chivaviro penalty in the first half of extra-time.

Sunday’s defeat almost certainly guarantees that Chiefs’ trophy drought will stretch to nine full seasons.

“I apologise to our 16 million supporters,” said the Chiefs interim head coach after the match.

“I am sure they will have been able to see the game .. it is not that we allowed them to come at us. We tried the best we could to get as far as we could, with the trophy drought as it is. Now we have lost, so the only thing we can do is repay the people by playing properly in the league.”

Johnson also highlighted the fact that Chiefs had won this cup competition 13 times, and to lose at this stage to a less-fancied opponent was particularly painful.

“Unlucky for Kaizer Chiefs, it’s not a good pill to swallow now because we wanted to maintain our good record in this cup. We just have to dust ourselves off now and play for the league, and play as hard as we can. If I invited you into our changeroom now, you would see a lot of sad boys.”