After beating Al Hilal Benghazi for a first win in the CAF Confederation group stages on Wednesday, SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt was left disheartened by the antic of the opponents.
While SuperSport won 2-1, thanks to a late winner from Etiosa Ighodaro, it was a game marred by controversial moments, that included three red cards – one to a player in each team, and a card for SuperSport’s goalkeeper coach Grant Johnson following a free-for-all fracas on the pitch that interrupted the game for nearly ten minutes.
“Look, I mean it was interesting, was actually worse there last week,” Hunt said in the post match press conference.
“So that’s what we go through every week. Ja, I don’t know where football is going, but certainly not going in the right direction in the game. And that’s why Africa will always be behind.
“You can never go forward in football, because when you get things happening like that, it’s just very sad. But that’s the state of the game. And as I said, it was worse last week, was actually worse there.
“So what we did, we grew up today again, the kids, more debuts for 18 year old youngsters, so it was good for them and good for the club, and certainly will benefit the game in the long run, that’s for sure.
“They will come out of it certainly much stronger, much better, and as long as we play the game the right way and try and play the right way, which we did, and we have done in the four games, we haven’t won, we’ve lost three, but we played the game in the right way, and that’s the most important thing.
“I will not allow that ever to happen with the team that I coach but that’s football and that’s part of the game. It goes on.”
Hunt wouldn’t be drawn into criticising the officials, and said it was the opposition who caused the problem.
“I don’t really want to go into this but it’s more the opposition than match officiating,” he responded.
“I mean the match officiating, you saw, certainly wasn’t very good but the opposition, the way they play the game, it’s what caused all the commotion. Did you see what happened? It’s not right.
“If you want to play like that, we won’t play like that, that’s for sure. We will not play like this. But it is what it is.”
