Uncharted territory for Hunt’s Wits

Jonty Mark

Gavin Hunt has admitted that his Bidvest Wits side are heading into the unknown when they take on UD Songo in Mozambique tomorrow in the first leg of their final qualifier for the group stages of the 2019/20 Caf Confederation Cup.

The Wits head coach responded with “nothing” when asked yesterday what he knows about the Clever Boys’ opponents, who, as their name suggests, are from the town of Songo in the NorthWest of Mozambique, close to the Malawi border.

Wits said before the start of the Confederation Cup that it was low on their list of priorities for the season, because of the cost of competing in the Confederation of African Football’s second-tier competition.

Hunt did say though that Wits would “like to” reach the group stages, though he also pointed to a lack of squad size, with the Clever Boys taking only 18 players on the trip to Mozambique.

Striker Simon Murray is out with a long-term knee injury, while Zimbabwean Terrence Dzvukumanja is also injured and unavailable for tomorrow’s match.

Hunt, meanwhile, bemoaned the increased pressure on Wits’ domestic fixture list, even though they are now out of the Telkom Knockout, after losing on penalties to Maritzburg United last weekend.

“It is a joke … the fixtures are not being too kind, we should have played on Wednesday. It is what it is ... we have nine games in January,” he said.

Wits, meanwhile, will look to promote players from the MultiChoice Diski Challenge in January to beef up their squad.

“We can’t get anything in the transfer market,” said Hunt.

“We will probably use a bit of youth, somebody from the Diski Challenge.”