So after the ecstasy of beating Egypt, Bafana Bafana felt the agony of getting beat by Nigeria.
And I’m not going to say I didn’t see it coming. Oh whatever, I saw it coming.
This team is still too inconsistent to be one of Africa’s best.
You could see it when they beat the Seychelles 6-0 at home in qualifying, only to draw away.
At Afcon, their form reads LWLWL.
There is a pattern and the sequence is way too simple.
Wednesday night’s exit wasn’t as bad as expected, losing 2-1.
But once Bafana had gone a goal down before 30 minutes was on the clock, did anyone really see them snatching a victory from behind?
In the end, it was just the same old, same old from the team - consistently inconsistent.
SCAPEGOAT OR MAN TO BLAME: Boss Baxter. Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix.
Once again, our attacking play was stuttering and we only had one shot in the first half, Thembinkosi Lorch hitting the side netting.
We had to be brave against the physical Nigerians and we were, in approach and when going toe to toe.
Coach Stuart Baxter got his formation and starting XI spot on. We showed the Super Eagles we were here to play.
Unfortunately, we didn’t play well.
Passes went astray. Especially those that went to our wide men Lorch and Percy Tau.
When we tried to get in behind the Nigerian defence, those passes went wide instead of inside the channels.
The upshot was that Lorch and Tau were too easily blocked from cutting in and being dangerous.
We couldn’t stand up and beat their fullbacks the way Ahmed Musa and Samuel Chukwueze slaughtered ours.
That was one of the failings of a midfield that was second-best on the night.
This was always going to be an area that Baxter was going to get right. And for picking a trio who have an eye for a pass, I give the coach an A-plus.
In the old days, Baxter would have had Hlompo Kekana and Tiyani Mabunda just sitting there.
But we needed enough dynamism to press, win possession and turn the Nigerians around.
That, fans, didn’t happen often enough and cost us the game.
Perhaps Baxter could have changed things up earlier and hooked off Lebo Mothiba for Lars Veldwijk with more than five minutes to go.
Veldwijk was supposed to be Plan B - a big target man to hit in a kick-and-rush finale.
However, with Mothiba struggling so obviously, Baxter should probably have given the giant Dutchman more team to grind down the big Naija centrebacks.
PLAN B: Lars Veldwijk didn't make an impact. Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix.
The question now, of course, is what’s next?
Is Baxter a dead man walking?
Up until the win over Egypt, everyone was calling for his head. But after the win over Mo Salah and the Pharaohs, he was a national hero again.
Now with Bafana showing pretty much the same failings against Nigeria has ew have seen all along, do we realise that we are going nowhere under the Brit?
Or do we let the man continue the work he’s been doing for the last two years and back him to take us to Qatar 2022?
That all depends on whether Safa will take a portion of the blame for Bafana’s failings.
No permanent assistant coach for Baxter and no friendlies ahead of leaving for Afcon didn’t help the team.
You can’t blame Baxter for everything if you don’t give him the tools to do his job or the game time to find his best combinations.
But you do get the feeling that this team is taking one step forward and then one step back.