TITLE ELIMINATOR?
GAVIN Hunt is not the man you want to help you hype up a game t hat automatically lands itself as somewhat of a title decider. Strange.
You’d think that as a threetime Absa Premiership winner with SuperSport United, the Bidvest Wits coach would be swinging from the chandeliers in anticipation of a fixture that will separate the men from the boys when his side visit defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld today (6pm).
“I don’t know,” said Hunt when asked whether their 5-0 thrashing of Baroka FC on Wednesday night was a good omen ahead of their match against Sundowns.
“You always want to be in front, don’t you? But we have only played 16 games and there is a lot to play for and we have only recently turned the corner and are just in the second round.
“Plus everything else is still going to come with it – the Champions League and the (domestic) cups.”
Wits top the log standings, although Hunt insists the table is not a true reflection based on points per match.
His calculation has Sundowns leading “by a country mile”.
The Clever Boys can change that tonight, with a win stretching their lead over the title holders to an incredible eight points despite having played three games more. Hunt was still very cautious. “To be fair, we will be playing against a side that has the championship as theirs to lose.
“What they have done (in winning the league, Champions League and the Super Cup) is unbelievable, so we have great respect for them and we go there with great humility,” the Wits coach said.
“It’s going to be close until the end because there are five teams that can still win this thing. I have been there and I know what it’s all about.”
There have been obvious similarities between Wits and Sundowns this season – a strong starting line-up complemented by a bench just as capable.
And there will be more comparisons when they face off at Loftus, irrespective of whether Hunt wants to admit it or not.
Pitso Mosimane, his counterpart at Sundowns, has already argued that the Clever Boys are only warming up their seat at the summit.
Surely Hunt can’t play this down.
“All we’ve got to do is worry about winning and getting points,” he said.
“I have been here four years and we have been better every season and that is all we can do.
“This squad is a lot better than last year, there’s no doubt about it. And we were able to get a lot of like-for-like situations.
“But we will see in March and April how we hold up when we are playing three games in the space of a week.”
Mosimane has mastered the art of being able to rotate his players at will, with the return of experienced defender Anele Ngcongca from a lengthy injury since he was signed in August and the acquisition of Algerian left-back Fares Hachi in last month’s transfer window giving them a further boost.
It is for this reason that Hunt continues to be careful when discussing title hopes, especially when this is only the first of the two league meetings between the sides. The next is scheduled for May 1.
“How can we be compared to them? They beat us by 14 points to win the league last season as we wobbled over the line,” Hunt said.
“And then they won two major trophies outside the country, which is unbelievable.
“They are undisputed, winning the league by a country mile.
“We know the task at hand and we obviously know they will be hurting from the last game (Wits beat Downs 3-0 to win the MTN8 cup in October). We are under no illusions what we are up against.”
@superjourno