Baxter gives his squad high fives
GOAL GLUT: SUPERSPORT ATTACK BLUNTS SAD ARROWS
Coach moves fast to keep his side’s feet on the ground.
Stuart Baxter was delighted as SuperSport United gave the perfect response to their title rivals with a 5-2 hammering of Golden Arrows on Wednesday.
Bidvest Wits and Cape Town City had delivered emphatic wins a day earlier but an inspired second-half display meant that SuperSport regained their place atop the Absa Premiership, as they ultimately aim to displace Tshwane neighbours Sundowns as champions.
“We had to answer, we didn’t answer very well in the first half, but I think showing character means that you are not down and out because you’ve played a poor 45 minutes. I think the character is a great point because we’ve spoken about how we’ve got to respond. They got good results, we had to respond and we were playing a good team – we played Arrows and they are one of the better teams, they can beat anybody on their night. So a big win was very important psychologically,” said Baxter after the match.
Matsatsantsa a Pitori have now gone 14 games unbeaten in the league, and Baxter feels his team is not getting the plaudits due to them, as they are carrying injuries to key men like Jeremy Brockie and Tefu Mashamaite.
“I think the squad deserves a massive pat on the back, they have been through the whole first half of the season with lots of these injuries. We’ve got a lot of our front-liners out,” said the SuperSport coach, who also sounded a note of caution about his side’s lofty position in the table.
“We are just about halfway through the season, and that in itself means very little. I spoke to a coach who was top of the league halfway through the season, and he said to me ‘listen, you don’t remember who in the 100m sprint was leading at halfway stage’ … he is right, you don’t remember. If we don’t kick on and compete properly, we might as well throw it away.”