SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt was pleased with the performance of his two new strikers, Zakhele Lepasa and Mamour Niang, during their 2-0 victory over Cape Town City at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday.
The duo made its debut in that match after joining the club during the January transfer window period and impressed Hunt.
Lepasa, who is on loan from Orlando Pirates, came close to scoring on debut, with Hunt saying he is not match fit and once he gets that fitness back, he will help them.
“Lepasa is different from all the strikers we got and you need different types of strikers and that’s why I took a chance with him, I mean he is not fit,” Hunt told the media after the match. “He has not played, so we need to get him fitter and it will take time, but he has other attributes that the other strikers haven’t got.”
Hunt also praised Niang, who also had a good debut on Saturday, saying he still needed time to adjust.
“He did well. He held the ball. He is a better player and he must understand that in SA, players run faster than the ball, whereas in Europe, the ball moves faster than the players,” he said. “So he has to understand that and he needs to work a little bit harder, but he will come alright.”
A strike by Thapelo Maseko and Darwin Gonzalez’s own goal saw Matsatsantsa a Pitori move to second on the DStv Premiership table.
Despite the results, Hunt was not happy with the performance. “You can see we have not won in four games and we were a little bit eggy. We were not good in the second half. But as I said, two or three games we played were far better than the last four and we didn’t win.”
Meanwhile, City coach Eric Tinkler feels decision-making let them down as they dominated the match but ended up on a losing side.
“Disappointed with the loss but not with the performance because I thought we responded very well after the loss against Stellenbosch,” Tinkler said.
“We spoke about controlling the match much better and I thought we did that very well. I thought from the first whistle we were in control just in the final third where I thought the quality of our decision was not there.”
Other results:
Swallows 1-0 Richards Bay; Maritzburg 1-1 AmaZulu; Gallants 2-0 Sekhukhune; Chippa 1-2 Stellenbosch; Arrows 1-2 Royal AM; Pirates 0-1 Sundowns
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