SuperSport United in for less turbulent second round, says Gavin Hunt

Matsatsantsa suffered their fourth defeat of the season at the weekend when they were beaten 2-1 by Golden Arrows – a game marred by questionable calls from the match officials, according to the coach.

But he reckons SuperSport have a good run of fixtures to come.

"Well, [the] second half of the season, I mean, we have all the Durban teams – or four of them – in Joburg; we’ve got the two Cape Town teams in Joburg, so they've been all away [games],” said Hunt. 

“So, those 6 games are at home, not that it means anything but we've got a better run of games in the second round, if you look at it from my perspective, but that doesn't mean you can turn them into points.”

Those winnable fixtures will still require a squad that can handle playing every two or three days and, with his experience, Hunt knows how to box clever.

"We've got a very small squad, I think the smallest in the league. So, we need to be clever and we need to do a few good things. We can't keep bringing the kids up," he added.

The coach previously ruled out toppling Sundowns at the summit and again reiterated that the focus was assessing SuperSport’s own progress, even if they are second on the table with a 10-point gap on the leaders, who they face next Monday.

"I think we've got to judge ourselves against ourselves and what we've got, I think that's important. We were almost on 2 points per game, which for me was a great achievement if we could have done that,” Hunt stressed. 

“I thought today [Saturday] was a stretch because of what we have done this week when Arrows were sitting and waiting for us, so it was a bit of a problem, I knew that.

“But if it was fair, I knew we would come out of it on the other side, but it is what it is. But if you've played three games in 7 days, [and] other teams have played one and haven't moved, it's harder. 

“So, when the [CAF] Champions League comes and people are moving around, you’re in and out of planes, and in Cape Town – you can't get a plane out of Cape Town, so you've got to fly at six o'clock in the morning.  So, it's not easy but anyway there are no excuses.”