Bidvest Wits Coach Gavin Hunt hopes the beating he’s taken could ease up, now that the defence that won him the league has been restored ahead of their Telkom Knockout Cup final against Bloemfontein Celtic on Saturday.
Wits will be looking to redeem themselves and try to salvage what’s left of the disastrous start to the 2017/2018 PSL season, while Celtic will be hoping to add silverware to their cabinet.
The Telkom Knockout final between Bidvest Wits and Bloemfontein Celtic takes place at the Princess Magogo Stadium on Saturday, with both sides aspiring to win silverware before the end of the year.
Wits have been plagued by injuries throughout the season, part of the reason they’ve plummeted to the bottom of the league log.
However, things are looking better with their mainline of defence back together.
Buhle Mkhwanazi, Thulani Hlatshwayo, Nazeer Allie and Sifiso Hlanti played together for the first time this season in a goalless draw with Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium this past Saturday.
Hunt is happy to have them all back at the same time and believes they were the backbone that helped the team lift last season’s PSL trophy.
“(It was for) the first time in 15/16 games this season that we’ve had our defence back in the last game … the first time! There’s no team that’s been through what we’ve been through in terms of that. But that’s football! You have to take it on the chin and as I said, we’ve got our defence back, which played the most of last season, which was the bedrock and the strength of our team and they were back last week. So, hopefully, we can keep them on the pitch now.”
The defending PSL champions and 2016 MTN8 winners are struggling in the league, but have the chance to claim a third piece of silverware in two seasons.
Wits defender Buhle Mkhwanazi says this is a must-win encounter in order to redeem themselves.
“We all happy to go to the final you know considering the fact that we’ve been doing badly in the league we really need to win this one in order to redeem ourselves, it has to be this final and only this final that we need to focus on and I’m hopeful that we going to win it cause the preparations are going very well and were all happy and excited looking forward to Saturdays match.”
Midfielder, Vincent Pule says the team will push forward and that their team spirit will help lift them out of their bad spell.
“Six months, ago you were number one now you are number last. It’s bad at the moment, but as a team, we have to fight we have to keep on going. You know, every game we have to keep on pushing it is all about us as a team. We fight together and stay together as a team, team spirit must be good.”
The match kicks-off at 6pm.
