A poor start to the Absa Premiership campaign has been made worse by The Buccaneers' first round exit from the MTN8 upon their return to the competition this year.
Pirates were sent packing by SuperSport United after fluffing a penalty shootout at the Orlando Stadium a week-and-a-half ago, and have since gone on to lose back-to-back league games as well.
This has saddened Lekgwathi, who is also an ambassador for the Wafa Wafa competition, as he had expected his former employers to go all the way in lifting the cup for the first time since their double-treble days.
"You know, it's sad for my team [Pirates]. Last year we missed the competition because we finished in position 11 [in the 2016/17 season],” Lekgwathi tells snl24.com/kickoff.
“This year we were back and I was looking forward to seeing them win the MTN8, thinking ‘Pirates will be back with a bang!’
“In fact, after last season’s performance, everyone was saying Pirates this season are going to surprise everyone with silverware. But, the first game – out. Eish, and it was against our hoodoo team, SuperSport.”
The 42-year-old former defender has also urged the current crop of players to end Matsatsantsa’s “hoodoo” over them, having failed to beat the Tshwane side in over three seasons.
“They must just come with a plan to beat SuperSport because I, myself, am getting tired of losing to them in league and cup games,” he says.
“In cup games our record is worse, we lost two Nedbank Cup finals against them, and now we get knocked out in the MTN8 as well. It’s so sad, especially after the improvement of last season.
“I was looking forward to seeing them in the final. But that’s football, as the former Baroka coach Kgoloko Thobejane said, ‘Football can kill you.’ I see now why football can kill you.”
Cape Town City will host Mamelodi Sundowns at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday afternoon (15h00), before SuperSport welcome Kaizer Chiefs to the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday (15h00) in the MTN8 semi-final first legs this weekend.