MATSHELANE MAMABOLO
Contrary to the general belief, Gavin Hunt is a fan of continental football and would love nothing more than to take SuperSport United into yet another campaign.
“I like the CAF experience,” Hunt said, following his team’s elimination from the CAF Confederation Cup at the weekend.
“It brings the team on tremendously and it helped us first time I was here (as coach of SuperSport way back in 2007). It helped me at Wits and it has helped me wherever I have been.
“You bring in the young players and it will make us be much better in the league, which should be the focus of our club.”
Unlike most coaches, Hunt does not seem to see the continental tournaments as competitions to be won but rather as a platform for him to blood young players and give them experience that will stand SuperSport in good stead domestically.
A four-time championship winner (three with SuperSport and one with the now-defunct Bidvest Wits), Hunt is renowned for lamenting participation in continental competitions as being draining, given the excessive travel it involves. He despises the fact participating in Africa leaves his team often having to play three times a week, as will be the case this time around.
After Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Modern Future, SuperSport will take on Cape Town City in a DStv Premiership clash tonight, before they travel to Algeria to conclude their Confederation Cup campaign against USM Alger on Sunday.
“Obviously, playing three games a week is not easy.
“Now we’ve got a big game against Cape Town City (tonight). They are our biggest rival, our direct rival in terms of points,” he said of Eric Tinkler’s team that is second on the table with the same number of points (30) as SuperSport after 17 games.
The Citizens have a better goal difference than Hunt’s third-placed team, and tonight’s result could well go a long way towards deciding who finishes second behind runaway leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.
Hunt was particularly disappointed at having missed out on the second Champions League spot last season and he is sure to stop at nothing to make up for that. His efforts, though, are undermined somewhat by the tough schedule that will see them taking the field tonight somewhat half-baked.
“We have to travel back now,” he said, after Sunday’s match in Polokwane.
“There’s no training, we get back and go onto the plane to Cape Town. But we prepared the team that is left back (in Pretoria) and we must prepare a few from here and try and see what we can do (tonight).”
SuperSport should take to the field with some confidence, given that they recently got the better of City, albeit via a penalty shoot-out, in the Nedbank Cup. The two sides drew 1-1 and could not be separated after extra time.
A similar result would suit City more and it is for that reason that Hunt is hoping that the likes of Ime Okon and Aphiwe Baliti replicate their impressive performance against Future in the Mother City tonight to help Matsatsantsa a Pitori bring back maximum points that will see them move into second place on the table.