Stellenbosch head coach Gavin Hunt has reflected on the club’s performance in the CAF Confederation Cup this season and feels they may have been slight victims of their own success.
Stellies wrapped up their CAF Confederation Cup campaign on Sunday, playing to a goalless draw against Tanzanian outfit Singida Black Stars. They finished in fourth, level on five points with Singida.
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In 2024/25, in their debut CAFCC season under Steve Barker, the club went all the way to the semi-finals. Stellies, who finished third in the Betway Premiership, also reached the MTN8 final, and in total played 51 games in the campaign.
While they did reach the MTN8 final again this season, things have not gone as smoothly, with struggles in their league campaign.
But Hunt was not making excuses, and says they now need to focus on getting back on track. While the CAFCC results did not go his way, it’s been a good start for Hunt domestically, having won both games played, in the league against Sekhukhune United, and beating defending champions Kaizer Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup round of 32.
“Well, it’s a brand new club,” Hunt said.
“I mean, how old is the club? Eight, nine years old, 10 years old, so done fantastically well.
“But I think we’re suffering a little bit from last year’s success. I mean, they played over 50 games. They played home games in Polokwane. They played home games at Loftus Versfeld. So people say a home game, but you’re still having to travel to go to a home game, you know what I’m saying.
“So, I think it’s taken a huge strain on that team, which is from last season, and it sort of filters into the next season, and then with the change of players and everything else happening. So, I think we’re suffering a little bit, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse.
“We got to come out of this thing now and concentrate on our domestic form and get that right. And then I think if you look at last year, the domestic form was good, so they had no worry about domestically. They could go, and I think they played pretty much their best team when they went away. I didn’t do that now, knowing what’s coming.”
Stellies had looked in a fairly decent position after their first two CAFCC games in the group, though this was before the double header against group favourites CR Belouizdad, and that was where the momentum in the group swung. In hindsight captain Sage Stephens says that the away result in Tanzania was perhaps where they missed an opportunity, and any hope ended with their disappointing loss last week to Otoho in Congo.
“I think if you look at last season, how we did in the competition, I think we chose the right games to know the opponents that we had a big chance of beating, and I think we did that well,” Stephens said.
“I think that’s let us down a bit this season. I mean, the last-minute penalty away in Tanzania, that’s a small margin that actually played a huge effect on us not qualifying.
“And then the game away in Congo, we just were not good enough. And I think because of the success maybe last season, I think maybe we thought it would just be a rollover, or it would happen again. I don’t think we applied ourselves as much as we should have, especially on these long trips.
“There’s a lot that we can improve, and we should improve and just not get complacent. I mean, it’s a big competition, playing against big teams, so I think sometimes we forget that we’re privileged to be doing this.”
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