Baxter chases full-house of trophies

STUART Baxter could do a Pitso Mosimane – and no, the Scotsman isn’t on the verge of winning the CAF Champions League.

This time last year, it was the Mamelodi Sundowns coach who rounded off his collection of domestic trophies by clinching the Telkom Knockout in fine fashion when the Brazilians beat Kaizer Chiefs 3-1 at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.

Now it is his SuperSport United counterpart, Baxter, pictured, who is a victory away from the same feat. At Chiefs, between 2012 and 2015, he won two Premier League titles, the MTN8 trophy as well as the Nedbank Cup, but could never quite get his men to go all the way in the Telkom Knockout – making it the one that got away. Baxter’s SuperSport go into Saturday’s final against Cape Town City at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane perhaps as favourites, though their opponents have proved to be equal to the task as untameable beast this season. Baxter returned to South African football seven years after what was a failed attempt to help Bafana Bafana qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany during his tenure with the national team. His critics thought he’d come back none the wiser until Chiefs romped their way to a league and cup double in his maiden season in 2012/13 and repeated it again two years later. And Baxter has already won the Nedbank Cup yet again, this time with SuperSport as they beat Orlando Pirates 3-1 in May this year – four months after he was appointment by the Pretoria team to replace beleaguered Gordon Igesund.

Although he said he was not too concerned about individual achievements when SuperSport dumped Pirates out of the tournament to secure their spot in the final this weekend, Baxter will realise he wouldn’t want to pass up the opportunity to be one of the few coaches to have won every cup on offer in what, by his own admission, is his wife’s favourite destination. The Telkom Knockout trophy could also be a good omen in their search for Premiership success, for the first time since 2010.