Black Leopards assistant coach Patrick Mabedi admitted his side were second best after their 1-0 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday.
Mabida was patrolling the touchline for Leopards, because of the suspension handed to Lionel Soccoia for his sending-off in the defeat to Limpopo rivals Polokwane City last weekend.
Leopards fell to their second successive 1-0 defeat of the season against Amakhosi and Mabida admitted Chiefs were better on the day.
READ: Chiefs squeeze past Leopards in Durban
"Overall Chiefs was the better team today," Mabida told SuperSport TV.
"But I think we need to do better. These games show us what we need to work on.
"Our planning was to do better and to play with width. We started well and it worked. But I think later the players forgot a little bit because they were playing with four at the back and didn't have wingers. So we wanted to exploit that area.
"We wanted to match them. We thought of waiting for them and countering them. We tried to make changes but it didn't work. We have to go back and try to work on it and try to bounce back."