Why SuperSport punched above Pirates and Chiefs - Gavin Hunt

SuperSport are in the race for a top-three finish in the league, alongside traditional giants Pirates and Chiefs, as well as qualification for one of next season's CAF inter-club competitions.

Upon rejoining United at the start of the season, Hunt met a depleted side who had just lost the likes of Ronwen Williams and Sipho Mbule, after letting go of Teboho Mokoena and Grant Kekana the season prior, to champions Mamelodi Sundowns.

Despite this and minimum spend on incoming playing personnel, the four-time league-winning coach believes the fact they've kept pace with the two Soweto sides, who both enjoyed pre-season spending sprees, is an achievement on its own.

"We haven't spent R1 on buying a player, [compared to] what the opposition has spent. I always judge it a little bit like that and I think that's a better reflection of how they've done well the guys with the small, small squad.

"We played a lot of youngsters at the beginning, and when they went back to the Diski [Shield] they got momentum there. It balanced out quite nicely [because] there was no funds to buy anybody, I knew that, and that's ok", he claimed.

Matsatsantsa are currently third on the log, two points behind Pirates in second and four ahead of fourth-placed Chiefs. 

But Hunt admits it would have been overly ambitious to target such a position at the start of the season.

"I knew if we can get one or two in I wanted to get in I felt we could've been much better. And with guys like Tyson [Thulani Hlatshwayo] and [Siphesihle] Ndlovu and Grant [Margeman].

"I'm talking about those types of players who came in and have done a hell of a job, they've been really really good for us. I look at us and we're okay, where we end up I don't know, there are still two games to go"

Coming up against Amakhosi in their penultimate league match on Saturday, 'Hunty', who was sacked before he could lead the Naturena-based outfit beyond the CAF Champions League semi-finals in 2021, could snap their hopes of continental football with a victory.