Smart money is on Clever Boys for title

A maiden PSL trophy is within Bidvest Wits’ reach, but they’re still taking it one game at a time

You don’t need a degree to work out that Bidvest Wits carry their Absa Premiership title aspirations in their hands. If the Clever Boys win their remaining eight games, they will be champions for the first time since the club was founded in 1921. But their path to glory is obstructed by three teams just as keen to lift the trophy.

After returning from Cape Town this week, Wits will host SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns on either side of an away trip to Highlands Park, before finishing their season in a highly anticipated encounter against Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on May 27.

So, what is manager Gavin Hunt doing differently to prepare his team for this all-important final act?

“Absolutely nothing. We are keeping things simple, just as we have done throughout the season,” says the experienced coach.

“Football is a simple sport. It is the media and the fans who make it complicated. If it needed rocket scientists to figure it out, I would not be here.”

Hunt may downplay his book smarts, but when it comes to having an intimate knowledge of what it takes to win a Premier Soccer League crown, he may as well possess a PhD.

Having won a hat-trick of titles with SuperSport between 2007 and 2010, Hunt knows that premature talk of success can be detrimental.

“When you start shifting your focus towards the finish line, you probably won’t get there. Instead, we are going to keep doing what we have been doing as that has got us into this fantastic position.”

There are two main variables that have brought Hunt here: goals from multiple sources and the consistent selection of a core group of players who are unquestionably his men.

All 11 players who have been on the field for more than 700 league minutes this season were drafted in by Hunt since he took over the reins of the club in 2013. And, apart from 36-year-old goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs, every player who has seen first-team football this term is one of Hunt’s recruits.

“I feel that this is my team and that when I give the players instructions, they have faith in the plan,” Hunt says, intimating that the primary reason for his team’s success is the Mahlambi, who has already netted five goals in just eight league appearances, and it is easy to see why the Clever Boys are the highest goal scorers in the league and are on course for a historic triumph

“I am not confident; I am relaxed,” Hunt says with a shrug of his shoulders.

“I heard that one of our main rivals are looking at each of their remaining games as if they were Cup finals. Good. Let them worry about the title and we will worry about our next game. We’ll see who comes out on top at the end.”

Few would begrudge Wits and Hunt if they went on to win. After four years of watching bigger clubs stake a claim as the best in the country, the small university club is on the verge of something spectacular. What’s more, the team are in complete control of their destiny.