MTN8: Hunt’s ready for Pirates challenge

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt is geared up and ready to lead his side straight into the deep end when they meet defending champions Orlando Pirates at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday (6pm kick-off).

Matsatsantsa a Pitori are looking to do better than their 1-0 loss at the hands of Stellenbosch FC last season in the quarter-finals of the MTN8, and having previously won the tournament three times, they face the biggest hurdle first up against the winners of the competition for the past two seasons.

The former league winners have bolstered their side with an injection of experienced players to add to the exciting young side, and Hunt might have an ace up his sleeve, with ex-Pirates winger Vincent Pule in with a chance to send a reminder of the quality he still possesses to his former club.

The #MTN8 quarterfinals get underway this weekend as the race for the first piece of silverware in the season begins. #MTNFC rounds up the numbers on the Top 8 tournament, which was first played 52 years ago.https://t.co/hmc6SFLgkT pic.twitter.com/SXSCCtedYh

— MTN8 Wafa Wafa! (@MTN8) July 31, 2024

The MTN8 forms a huge part of the pre-season, and it’s also an indicator of how ready the teams are leading into the league season. The 60-year-old coach feels his side could have done with just a little bit more time before the crunch encounter.

“Pressure comes from yourself and not who or where you play,” he said.

“We could have done with another week because our players only came in last week – four or five players – but hey, we have nothing to lose so we will have a go. We have a lot of new guys in, we have seven or eight starting eleven players, so we don’t know, but a lot of them have a lot of experience.

“You can be excited about pre-season and end up falling flat on your face in the first game. So, I’m not too excited or down, but I mean we need a game or two.

“Obviously, the first league game for us will be on September 17, which is miles away, but we need to put up a good show, which we will do. We are big underdogs there.”

Matsatsantsa managed to finish one point off fourth position in the Premiership last season, and despite the inexperience in the squad, Hunt believes they can use that performance to build up to this game where the expectation is for them to fly well under the radar against the defending champions.

“We needed a bit of experience, we were crying out for that, it’s not always easy because we are not buying we are trading. So, when you trade you need timing for it to happen; we have done decent business and we have some good players coming in.

“You can never control results. You can control performances but not result

“A result in a cup is obviously important because if you lose you’re out. It’s important for us to put up a good performance like we did at the end of the last season, we put up a good performance and that is the most important thing.”