Hunt credits CAFCC for mental toughness after Pirates win

by Bertin Basson

Monday Feb 10, 2020. 13:00

Bidvest Wits head coach Gavin Hunt has credited the club’s CAF Confederation Cup run for the mental toughness showcased during Sunday’s thrilling Nedbank Cup win over Orlando Pirates.

The Clever Boys looked down and out after going down 3-2 in the first half of extra-time and being reduced to 10-man following the sending off of Elias Pelembe, but Gift Motupa’s late goal sent the game to penalties.

Wits duly emerged victorious from the spot with Lorenzo Gordinho thumping home the winning kick on debut.

“There’s so much I can say but I’d rather stay away from that, I think CAF makes you strong, it makes you mentally strong and all the diversity we had in CAF, you can’t believe what we had in CAF, we came here and you know, that’s why we battle away,” Hunt said in the aftermath as quoted by SuperSport.com.

“We’re strong mentally, physically, down to 10 [players], we always looked like we could have a chance, yes they had chances at the end but we had the best chances of the game, real 100 percent chances over the course of the game.

“[Deon] Hotto in the first five minutes of the game, I mean he’s just got to roll it in, we hit the post and obviously we had some other ones. Fantastic spirit, we’ve got fantastic spirit, we might not have the best, but we always got a good spirit and that’s the most important thing.

“I’ll say it again what we went through in CAF, no human being can go through what we’ve been through. I knew we could withstand things like this,” Hunt concluded.

Wits crashed out of the 2019-20 CAF Confederation Cup group stages without registering a single win.