Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has revealed what he told Gavin Hunt after his side’s 1-0 win in Monday’s Tshwane Derby.
Masandawana beat SuperSport United 1-0 thanks for a first-half strike by Neo Maema to go 16 points clear of their Pretoria rivals – and 14 points ahead of second-placed Richards Bay.
Hunt has always tried to play down title talk and a 16-point gap seems too much of a ask, but Mokwena insisted he knows that what Hunt says in the media and what he tells his players were two different things.
“As always I’ll congratulate the team, I’ll congratulate the players, very proud of their gallant effort,” he stated.
“Typical match against a team that has [ambition]. They can say it and I said to him now, Gavin, I said ‘he can say he’s got no ambition to win the league title but for sure they had and they knew that they had to push us and push us. They didn’t come here to sit back’.
“And when you play against a coach who has won four league titles, he hasn’t won those four league titles by chance, they were not given out to him.
“We expect that there is some form of organisation, some form of tactical surprises like we saw with the inverted wingers, we saw [Ghampani] Lungu playing on the side of the left and coming inside to his right foot.
“We saw [Thapelo] Maseko on the opposite site and coming inside onto his left foot in the first half, ok then we change it in the second half, immediately at half-time.
“Then he changes again, he matches us with the diamond, he goes diamond vs diamond but then he takes the strikers wide and then it’s a bit difficult because we’re playing with inverted full-backs, so we had to restructure.
“So congratulations to the boys, I think a gallant effort and a great shift and I’m very proud.”
Sundowns return to action on Saturday when they travel to FNB Stadium to face Kaizer Chiefs who sit 19 points behind them on the log.
