Richards Bay interim coach Ronnie Gabriel admits his squad cannot compete man for man with Mamelodi Sundowns.
The seven-time successive Premier Soccer League champions recorded a 2-0 win over the Natal Rich Boyz at the King Zwelithini Stadium on Saturday.
Arthur Sales and Lucas Ribeiro were both on target to lift Sundowns six points clear of second-placed Orlando Pirates at the top of the standings and leave Richards Bay in 15th place.
There is a massive gulf in quality between the two teams, with Gabriel admitting that a lot more work is needed to raise the level of his young players.
The interim boss said on FARPost: “We need final third quality, players who can put the ball in the back of the net and conversion rate; that’s where we’re lacking. So we will have to continue to work hard.
“Remember, with this group, we have to be honest with ourselves. We have a lot of youngsters in our team, and we need to coach the youngsters.
“We don’t have ready-made talent like Ribeiro, Sales and all galaxy of stars; you just put them there, and they get you results out of moments of brilliance.
“For us, we have to coach these boys every day, create training sessions to replicate the pressure of the game whereby there are more goal-scoring opportunities.
“So we are coaches who develop players to be top. With Sundowns, you saw them; they have players all over, and you can pick anyone to do their own thing on the pitch. Thats the difference between us and Sundowns, we have players that we need to coach and do many repetitions day in and day out.”
Richards Bay next face Marumo Gallants on January 4.