Keeper Walters earns Hunt’s grudging praise

Bidvest Wits coach Gavin Hunt (left) rued his side’s missed chances after losing to Cape Town City for the second time this season, when the teams met in the first leg of the MTN8 semifinals at the Cape Town Stadium last Sunday.

The Clever Boys suffered a 1-0 defeat to the Citizens in their opening league game at Bidvest Stadium, before going down by the same scoreline in the cup in the Mother City. Hunt lauded City goalkeeper Shu-Aib Walter’s heroics and said he was the difference in both matches, which saw his players unable to beat the 35-yearold goalkeeper.

“Over the last two games, if we had scored half our chances against them, we would have won by a country mile in both games. The goalkeeper has won two manof-the-matches in the last two games,” said Hunt.

The Wits mentor said the home side depended on catching his team on counter-attacks and hopes his charges will give a more convincing performance when they meet for the second leg.

“They didn’t try and play, they played on the counter and sat in. All credit to them, they won the game and we’ve got to try to break it down and be better than that.”

Cape City coach Benni McCarthy, meanwhile, was happy with his players’ efforts on the day even though he went into the game without his skipper Lebogang Manyama. McCarthy said he might make changes to his team for the second leg depending on the work-rate of the players during training.

“I still want to see the commitment I saw today (Sunday). If you don’t train, don’t think you’re going to be back in the starting lineup,” said McCarthy.

“I’m not scared of changing it. I want warriors, I want people who are willing to fight. So every single day it’s about working hard, and come Wits again, whoever has done the business on training day will get the nod.”

The second leg will be played at the Bidvest Stadium on September 10.