Gavin Hunt targeting top four finish after win over Royal AM

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt can afford to smile again after his team picked up three points for the first time in 2024 thanks to a narrow 1-0 win over Royal AM on Wednesday.

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Hunt and his charges were winless in nine DStv Premiership matches heading into the encounter against Thwihli Thwahla at the Harry Gwala Stadium.

Veteran striker Bradely Grobler came off the bench to score the winner late in the game as Matsatsantsa a Pitori moved up to fifth on the log standings.

“We won cup games, but didn’t win league games. It has been a frustrating period because we’re better than that. We haven’t scored and the first game we played Stellenbosch FC and we didn’t score although we had umpteenth chances,” a jovial Hunt said who is normally grumpy after an unfavourable result.

“Even when we lost to Stellenbosch 4-0, we had two or three chances in the first half and had we just played the pass then we would have scored. When you score like we scored now everybody ups their alertness and intensity. So scoring goals has been a big problem for us.”

Hunt explained why he started Grobler on the bench in a move that turned out to be a masterstroke as the 36-year-old produced the most telling moment of the game with four minutes left of regulation time.

‘He’s a good professional’

“I put Bradley Grobler on the bench and he normally starts. I said rather come in the last 20 minutes and sometimes you have to do that,” he said.

“He’s a good professional and I’m happy for him. We must try and finish well because we have tough games. We obviously want to finish in the top four if we can, which we’ll be overachieving.

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“This is a learning curve for this young team. We have a young team that has won a lot (in the juniors) and now all of a sudden, they have to work harder off the ball. There’s a pattern that they need to understand that is different from where they were. They haven’t got the physicality and endurance so they need to learn. Playing in Africa was brilliant for them but this has not been one of our best performances and we won.”