Hungry Lions head coach Henry Basie says his players struggled playing on the pitch at Orlando Stadium after the defeat to Orlando Pirates.
The Motsepe Foundation Championship side suffered a 4-0 defeat to the Buccaneers in the Nedbank Cup round of 16 on Saturday night.
The Lions tactician feel the team's plans fell apart of the own goal in the first half.
Read: Bucs Punish Lions To Keep Nedbank Cup Defence Alive
"Good game, I think we started with a good plan but when we scored the own goal the boys started to panic. I think Pirates is a good team, exceptional lessons for us tonight," Basie told SuperSport TV.
"Even when we talk about the pitch itself in terms of the conditions, we're used to playing on dry grass and tonight we couldn't get the grip on the ball, because the ball is skiing all the time. It was a struggle for my boys.
"But I think two or three boys did exceptionally well, more especially my left-back Cohen and Jan was also doing well. But I think under the conditions they played exceptionally and I'm so happy, I think we've learned.
"We can just take it as lessons, I mean Orlando Pirates is not a small team. I think what we saw tonight, they are a little bit too clever for us. But we can learn, we can only take the lessons and get better."
Basie and Lions will now switch focus to the promotion push in the Championship, where his side sit six points behind the top three in sixth spot.
"Of course we take our focus back to the league now. This opportunity you can just embrace it, we're so happy for the likes of Nedbank Cup, the PSL, Irvin Khoza, Kaizer Motaung, Mato (Madlala), what they are doing for us," he added.
"I mean tonight the emotions we had to share some of them, strict Orlando Pirates supporters but some of them they supported us tonight. Therefore we embrace the opportunity, we've learned a lot.
"We're looking forward to promotion, so this gives us a chance to see how we go in this league and if you want to compete you need to play this way. So I think I'm proud man. Unfortunately we conceded a little bit of too many goals, it was not the plan but because of the conditions, the red-card, it didn't give us a chance tonight. But I'll pray for another chance."
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