Benni is keen to put five over Hunt
The student still wants to whip the schoolmaster even if it will be for a fifth time this season‚ says Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy ahead of yet another meeting with his former mentor, Gavin Hunt.
City have beaten Hunt’s Bidvest Wits four times this season and McCarthy says he is desperate for a fifth triumph, but far from cocky despite his success.
City host the league champions in a Premier Soccer League encounter at Athlone Stadium on Saturday night.
“I can never be too confident when I’m up against Huntie‚” he said.
“‘Coachy’ is experienced and Wits are slowly but surely picking up. They are making steps forward down there [near the relegation zone] and they are gaining confidence.
“I’ve given him four hidings so far‚” teased the rookie coach‚ who got his debut as a 17-year-old at Seven Stars during Hunt’s first coaching job.
McCarthy went on to become the country’s record-breaking goal scorer and competed at the World Cup while Hunt has won a record-equalling four league titles.
“A fifth one‚ I think‚ is highly possible. We are going to go out there and play.”
City beat Wits in both legs of their MTN8 semifinal in August at the start of the season and also had‚ in McCarthy’s own words‚ a “snatch-and-grab” league success at the Bidvest Stadium in 2017.
Their fourth win over Wits came earlier in February in the first round of the Nedbank Cup in which the Capetonians played poorly yet still booked their passage to the next round with another lone-goal victory. McCarthy is concerned that City will be completely out of the title race if they lose a third successive league match.
“We have already had a dip like this in this season‚ so we can’t afford to have another dip at the most crucial stage as we are hitting the straight.
“You can see the finish line now and we are edging closer and closer‚ so we don’t want to have any dip and mess up all our hard work that we’ve done the whole season. So I want to go and make it five out of five.”
It would not be easy against a determined team and a Hunt who “is probably going to say to his players that if they lose for a fifth time to us‚ half of them will have to start looking for their next club‚ for next season”.
“Hopefully the student can again give the teacher a lesson! And then next season‚ I won’t mind losing [to Hunt] because I’ll know I’ve beaten him five times.”