Hunt explains why he rested his regular players

Disappointed SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt defended his decision to play striker Thamsanqa Gabuza at the back during their 1-2 defeat to amateur side Dondol Stars in the Nedbank Cup first round at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Wednesday.

Hunt, who rested some of his regular players such as captain Onismor Bhasera, Keenan Johannes, Thatayaone Ditlhokwe, Grant Margeman and Bradley Grobler, started with Gabuza with inexperienced Bilal Baloyi at the back.

It was a move that backfired in the end, but Hunt said he had to rest some of his players as they still have a long season where they plan to qualify for the CAF Champions League.

“We gave people a chance tonight. Obviously, we have players under different circumstances. We still have a long season and we put players out there and should be good enough to win the game,” Hunt explained to the media after the game.

“Given a chance and [you must take it]. We have Tyson [Thulani Hlatshwayo] out and Luke [Fleurs], but I don’t want to go there. It is not an excuse, we had enough chances to win the game and we didn’t take them.

“You have to try and play the situation and we did the right thing. Will I do it again? I will do exactly the same thing again. We have to look after the team for the longevity of the future.

“Players were given a chance and I must take the blame, but you have to believe that players were good enough to do the job.”

Matsatsantsa a Pitori took a lead when Siyabonga Nhlapo headed home from a corner, but Dondol recovered with second-half goals from Relenogile Molefe and captain Kholofelo Monama to win 2-1.

But Hunt said he was not embarrassed by the defeat as it happens to any team around the world.

“You go all over the world, it happens like this. As I said, we had a lot of entries in the box and you have to take your chances,” he said.

“The winning goal was a bit of deflection but fair play to them. When you play these types of games you have to score and we didn’t obviously get two and the game ends like this.”

Dondol coach Vincent Rammoni was full of praise for his side's performance after causing an upset.

“It was a very difficult game for us to play against a Premiership side while we are from the ABC Motsepe League, it is not easy at all,” Rammoni said.

“We struggled in a lot of aspects, especially defensively it was very difficult. We had to dig deep to match their physical presence and duels. It was not easy.”