Hunt had to do something clever to get his team past Amakhosi

JOHANNESBURG: Even though they were pegged back by Kaizer Chiefs for much of the second half of their cup tie on Saturday, Bidvest Wits coach Gavin Hunt described his side’s narrow 1-0 victory to send them through to the final of the Telkom Knockout as “gutsy”.

The Clever Boys took the lead through striker James Keene almost immediately after the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Wiseman Meyiwa was sent off for a reckless stamp on Daine Klate half an hour into the fixture.

“I thought in the first half we were dominant, but didn’t play to score and that was a little frustrating for me. I told them Chiefs would come at us in the second,” said Hunt.

“They (Chiefs) changed their system and pushed us back a little bit and we kept giving the ball away.

“All in all I thought it was a gutsy performance from us. We had to do what we had to do. We had Phumlani (Ntshangase) playing centreback. We had Daine playing on the inside because we had no personnel, which we haven’t had the whole season. I will obviously sound clever because it worked, but we had to do something and set-up the team in a certain way.

“We went with two strikers. I knew James wasn’t fit, but if he gets half a chance he will score.”

Wits host Sundowns in a league match tomorrow and will look to move up the table following the worst start to a season by the defending champions in the PSL era. The win against Chiefs was their fifth in open play from 15 matches in all competitions.

Chiefs coach Steve Komphela was adamant last week that the club was in no rush in their search for a forward when asked how close the Glamour Boys were to adding one to their 2016-17 roster.

But following their elimination from the Telkom Knockout by Wits, Komphela now has to rethink.

“I thought we could have at least had an equaliser,” the coach said. “Listen, you could have had the best striker on the pitch, but if it’s not your day it’s not your day,” Komphela continued.

“Dumisani Zuma was twice in a scoring position. Gustavo Paez as well, there’s one ball, which I thought he could have chipped over to find (Siphiwe) Tshabalala.

“All these are reasons, but we had opportunities to equalise.”

The Chiefs mentor said last week that the club had felt no pressure to get another striker on their books. Now that the January window is approaching, perhaps Komphela will plead with management to speed up the search. He now only has the Premier League and the Nedbank Cup to target as a last chance to get his first major trophy at Chiefs.

“It’s sad. You would want to finally come out of this situation,” said Komphela. “We just need to be more objective and look at what it is that we did wrong, including the fact that we missed so many opportunities. The essence of a champions is not falling, the concern should be the rise.”

Chiefs fans did not seem that dissatisfied with missing out on another piece of silverware after the match. Perhaps seeing their team come out the better side in the second half, even though Meyiwa had been sent off, they had a bit of sympathy for Komphela.

“We have so much respect for them, and I am sure they saw the amount of effort the players put in, more especially in the second half,” the coach said. “It was just unfortunate. You ask yourself whether they were silent because they saw what transpired or are they still feeling the pain?

“We don’t want to see our people going home without a victory. It was possible to win this match even with a man down, with respect to Wits. They didn’t pose too much of a threat. We should have won, but it happens.”