Hunt praises his Chiefs players despite Celtic draw

Kaizer Chiefs coach, Gavin Hunt was more understanding of the reasons behind his team’s horrendous display that saw them give away a 2-0 lead to end up in 2-2 draw with Bloemfontein Celtic on Saturday.

ALSO READ: Chiefs squander two-goal lead to draw at Celtic

After going 2-0 ahead after just 13 minutes, you’d expect Hunt to be a little upset about the end result, but he didn’t come down hard on his players, and instead praised them for their efforts.

“It was another good performance, I thought we had a good performance on Wednesday as well when we lost 1-0 (to Chippa United), but the old Achilles heel of our team is the defending. And I always say that you can’t win anything without good defending,” said Hunt in a post-match interview.

“But we’ve been making forced changes the entire season and that throws you off a little. Having said that, I thought we had the better chances, more than enough to have won the game.

“But again, you can’t come and score two goals and end up drawing the game. We should be defending better, but it is what it is,”

Hunt was forced into three changes during match with Mulomowandau Mathoho, Happy Mashiane getting injured and Daniel Akpeyi leaving the field on a stretcher.

Akpeyi and Mathoho were taken out at half time, with Bruce Bvuma and Reeve Frosler taking their places and forcing a shape change in the team.

Mashiane went out just 10 minutes into the second half, with Dumisani Zuma taking his place. This is what gives Hunt headaches as he has had to change his system in a number of games because of injuries.

“The first substitution was goalkeeper Daniel, he had a big bang on his head and obviously has a concussion. And Tower’s got a groin and he couldn’t carry on after 30 minutes. And for me, with Rama (Ramahlwe Mphahlele) being down and unable to play, but I don’t want to go into that.

“Mashiane got a bad kick on his ankle and he looked like he needed to come off… so those are three forced changes. But I am proud of the players, they are giving me everything and that’s the most important part,” added the 56-year-old mentor.