Despite bowing out of the Cosafa Women's Championship, Ellis was full of praise for Banyana Banyana’s young squad and Thubelihle Shamase who scored a hat trick in a 3-0 win over Eswatini.
South Africa crashed of the 2023 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship despite a 3-0 hammering of neighbours Eswatini at Dobsonville Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
READ | 'The whole of South Africa should be proud' - Ellis
The seven-time champions could only finish second in the group and already knew their fate before the match, as Mozambique and Zambia had occupied the two remaining spots to progress for the semi-finals.
In Ellis’ defence, the young squad was afforded little time to gel and prepare for the competition, playing their opening match against Malawi after just one training session at camp, while some players had not trained at all.
Despite the challenges, a spirited Banyana side returned to winning ways with a 3-1 win over Madagascar on Saturday, before bulldozing past Eswatini on Tuesday, even after losing captain Thalea Smidt within the opening five minutes.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Ellis had plenty of praise for Player of the Match, 21-year-old Shamase.
"We put up a good performance and I think I said [to the players] when this is all over, let’s make this a memorable game. Let everybody remember this one game for the performance that we put in," Ellis said.
"I want to say congratulations to Thube [Shamase] for scoring a hat trick today, she scored for us in practically every game and she showed her quality once again.
"Been part of Banyana for a while, both the twins (Thubelihle and Sphumelele Shamase) and a few of the of the other players. There were a lot of players that got their first caps at this tournament.
"To the players, I’m just disappointed for them more than anything because of everything that they put in during the short time that we were together, but I think we put up a good performance. I don’t think at any stage Eswatini was a threat.
"We created a lot of chances and I said to the players let's go out and just enjoy yourselves. Let’s put some goals in the back of the net but let’s make that we keep a clean sheet which we did today."
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