'Crazy, unbelievable mistakes' — Wits coach Gavin Hunt fires a salvo at his own player

A frustrated Gavin Hunt took the unusual step of publicly criticising Sifiso Hlanti for mistakes that proved costly in the weekend defeat by SuperSport United, adding that errors by the Bafana Bafana defender had hampered Bidvest Wits throughout the season.

Hunt did not mention Hlanti by name but it was clear who he was talking about after the left back got caught out of position when SuperSport took a first half lead at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday and then gave away a late penalty.

The defeat was a massive blow to Wits’s outside hopes of a late charge for the title.

They have now lost three of their last five league games and are 14 points behind leaders Kaizer Chiefs, with two games in hand.

“We should have won comfortably,” an irate Hunt said.

“They didn’t look like scoring but then you have the same player who makes two mistakes.

“Crazy, unbelievable mistakes.

“We could have won by four, five or six. It was crazy.”

Hunt was exaggerating Wits’s dominance though they did have several good chances in the matches where Teboho Mokoena and Bradley Grobler scored for SuperSport.

Wits have picked up just four out of a possible 15 points from their previous five league games.

“Obviously we are a little weary, we’ve been playing a lot.

“We’ve got a small striker, we’ve got no strikers but in saying that we should still have comfortably won the game.”

Gift Motupa and new Cameroonian acquisition Bienvenu Eva Nga both missed the match because of injury.

“In the first half they never came near our goal and then one cross across the box and the same person (Hlanti) is not there.

“He should have been at the post to easily clear the ball.”

The 29-year-old Hlanti also got caught in possession and then brought down SuperSport’s new Congolese striker Guily Manziba with a handful of minutes left.

This allowed the home side to double their lead and make sure of their first victory after four successive defeats.

“Most of our games have been like this. We’ve lost when we should have won but it is what it is,” added an irritated Hunt.