James is Keene to repay Clever Boys’ faith

There was a touching moment in Bidvest Wits’ 5-0 evisceration of Ajax Cape Town on Tuesday as James Keene (right) celebrated his first goal for the Clever Boys in almost a year by running over to the bench and wrapping Gavin Hunt in a warm embrace.

“It was a thank you to the whole staff,” said the 31-year-old striker.

“To Gavin, even to Jack the kit man, to Nick the physio ... everyone put a lot of work in to get me ready.”

Keene had not played for Wits since April, requiring surgery on his knee in May, and then enduring an arduous road to recovery. He scored seven league goals in 11 appearances after signing for Wits in January 2016 and his serious injury, along with that to young star Phakamani Mahlambi, was a large part of the reason Wits’ title challenge fell away.

Now both are back, and both performed superbly against the Urban Warriors, as Wits started their 2017 off with a bang. Mahlambi won Man-of-the-Match, but Hunt thought it should have gone to Keene.

“He was outstanding, he epitomises what we are all about and showed how we missed him. He is an important player for us,” said the Wits coach.

Keene, meanwhile, clearly enjoys his partnership with 19-yearold Mahlambi, who has three goals in three starts since his return from knee ligament surgery.

“We compliment each other well. I do the dirty work and he can score goals, you can see how much talent the boy has. He is hard to defend against and is going to be a very good player in the future … not many people can catch him, he is that fast. When he is running down the wing I am just running behind him trying to get into the box.”

Wits open their Champions League campaign against Reunion side AS Saint Louisianne on Saturday and Keene is looking forward to competing in the continent’s top club competition.

“It is a big competition for us and we want to go a long way.”