MIGUEL Gamondi took the strain of a surprise defeat to Tabora United away from his players, after Young Africans suffered a humbling home defeat on Thursday evening.

Fresh from their first defeat of the season against Azam last week, Young Africans' jaw was swiftly rocked once more by a 3-1 loss at Chamazi Complex, leaving them one point behind Simba in the NBC Premier League standings.

Offen Chikola and Yacouba Sogne embodied Tabora United's brilliant performance, combining for the first two goals in the first half before defensive midfielder Nelson Munganga struck the final nail on Young Africans’ coffin in the second half.

Chikola curled home the visitors' first with a pinpoint curling finish from 20 yards against the run of play in the 19th minute. While Stephane Azizi Ki wasted the chance to get Young Africans back in the contest from 12 yards in the third minute of added time before the interval, Chikola completed his brace a minute later.

Munganga put the game out of sight with 12 minutes to play before Clement Mzize scored a late consolation goal.

Reflecting on the reason for the loss, Gamondi (pictured) believes this side weren’t as sharp as their opponents for a number of reasons but opted to shoulder the blame instead.

“We must be honest. You see in the eighth minute Aziz Andambwile picked up an injury and we did not have any central defender on the bench. Musonda missed one clear chance and after that they attacked once and scored one goal.

“We had a penalty and missed it. In the second half they attacked twice and scored two goals. We attacked 20 times but did not score. It is football. Like I said nothing worked for us today. The performance of the team wasn’t good but I think it was influenced by the situation as well.

“But there are responsibilities. You know how football is, when the team is winning everybody is happy and when they lose, I am held responsible. I am their coach. No blame because we played without all our defenders,” he said.

He Added: “It is football, the other team did their business and we did not do well. We must accept and be strong. I am the first one who is concerned because the other day when we lost to Azam we did not deserve it but it is football.

“But for today we can say nothing. They were realistic and we were not. This is what I can say, I don’t have a single explanation. Probably tired as well, we played six games in 20 days plus travelling and everything. I repeat, I get all the responsibilities for this loss.”