Clever Boys secure comfortable 3-0 victory
The smell of desperation, especially on match-day, assaults your senses when you enter the Witwatersrand University precinct, which also houses Bidvest Wits. The Clever Boys are desperate to bring the Absa Premiership to Milpark.
On Tuesday night, they moved a step closer to realising that dream with a 3-0 victory over Golden Arrows that put them in first place and in the driver’s seat after 21 matches.
That is one game less than Cape Town City, who they now lead by two points.
Gavin Hunt hardly sat down, pacing up and down barking instructions. Even the club CEO Jose Ferreira found his seat in the VIP stand hot. He paced behind the Clever Boys’ bench with his hands on his waist.
Hunt and Ferreira, are at the heart of that desperation to bring the league to Wits. That is, after all, what they were brought from SuperSport United to do.
Four years into his tenure, Hunt is close to repaying the club. Last night, he rewarded rightback Reeve Frosler for his good performance against Smouha in the CAF Confederation Cup play-offs with a place in the starting XI.
Frosler did enough against the Egyptians to prove he is a capable replacement for the injured Nazeer Allie. The club’s depth has been put to the test in the final stretch.
That depth was further tested on Tuesday with the injury to Thabang Monare less than 20 minutes into the match.
The central midfielder pulled a muscle and was replaced by Phumlani Ntshangase.
It is that depth that will come in handy in the club’s fight to win the league for the first time in the PSL-era. There is also the fact the Clever Boys find the back of the net regularly. They have the best strike rate in SA.
Limbikani Mzava did not do Arrows’ any favours by handing Wits a chance to score their 36th goal of the league after he handled the ball in the box. Gabadinho Mhango stepped up and put the hosts in the lead from the penalty spot. Mogakolodi Ngele sealed the result with a thunderbolt and a tap-in to complete a brace within five minutes.