Steve Barker sees silver lining in RS Berkane defeat

The Stellies mentor was speaking after their 3-1 defeat to RS Berkane of Morocco at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Sunday afternoon in Group B of the continental competition.

Barker took the positives from a loss that left them bottom of the table in two games played so far.

"Really proud of what our football club has achieved in such a short space of time. For us to be playing on a stage like this, playing against a team that's shown over the last years that they are really good team and have won this Confed Cup a couple of times,” Barker said.

“Just for the privilege of being able to play in this competition makes me proud of the club and of the players. We are not only representing ourselves as Stellenbosch, we are representing the country.

“So, when one sort of gets into this level of playing against type of level teams, I think the important part is that we keep learning and we keep growing."

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The coach used Mamelodi Sundowns as an example given that The Brazilians are now considered a powerhouse in the more prestigious CAF Champions League.

Barker added that there were moments against Berkane they can be proud of.

"Over a period of time then you gain knowledge, you gain experience and then obviously you are able to compete. So, you know we've gotta look at this as a great experience for us, a challenging experience and it's obviously also not ideal that we are not playing in front of our fans and missing sort of the numbers at the game to spear us on,” the coach added.

“Obviously, a lot of the travelling that we have done doesn't make it easy. So, I'm not going to sit here and say that we were poor today and we lost 3-1 and that, yes, we did, however, if you look, we knew that they have got real quality on the final third.

“I think the first goal is obviously a great cross, top-class header. In the setpieces we knew they would be dangerous in the right areas and obviously the third goal was also, of massive quality.

“I feel that we showed enough that yes, lack of experience maybe, a little bit of dealing with situations in the final third but I think once we showed that little bit of belief and we showed that we can also take the game to the opposition.

“I think in the last 45, second half, we showed that we are more than capable of doing it. So, for me, it's about judging how far we are from being at that level."