‘Give him time,’ says Hunt as teen Campbell scores again in SuperSport’s cup win

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt has stressed that Shandre Campbell needs time to work on many tactical areas of his game after the teen forward sensation scored his third goal in 2023-24 in his team's penalties Nedbank Cup win against Cape Town City.

Campbell, 18, has been making waves with impressive statistics of three goals and four assists in 17 league and cup games, being promoted from SuperSport's DStv Diski Challenge (DDC) under-23/reserve team at the start of the season.

He showed a goal-poacher's instinct, taking left-back Lyle Lakay's clever first-time pass knocked across the box, controlling and picking a spot to finish past Darren Keet and give United a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Tuesday night.

Khanyisa Mayo equalised in first-half added time and the score in a testy encounter remained 1-1, SuperSport edging the cup tie 3-1 one penalties.

Hunt urged that Campbell is raw and needs refinement in many areas of his game. The coach said he is trying to push the teen into being versatile during a match, playing him wide and in the centre on Tuesday.

“Any player needs to be versatile. And playing with a squad like we’ve got, that was always the secret of the club — we had three or four players who were very versatile,” the coach said.

“I moved him to a different position in the second half — but he’s got to get better; playing between the lines, if you want to call it [that]. We just don’t want to pigeonhole him in one area.

“We played him out of position on the right tonight, he came inside, played in a different position.

“But he’s got to get better. There are lot of things we’ve got to work on. But he’s young — you’ve got to give him time.”

Hunt said before the game it was a tough draw pitting second-placed DStv Premiership side City against third-placed SuperSport, and it was no surprise the cup clash produced few chances.

“It was a game attrition wasn’t it — gee whizz, it was a real [battle]. Obviously we would have been disappointed if we’d lost.

“City did had one cleared off the line in the second half, but we also had a lot of good chances.

“I don’t think we were at our best, we looked a bit heavy, but the important thing was we got through.”

Campbell was SuperSport's top scorer with eight goals in 26 games as they won the 2022-23 DDC. He was man-of-the-match in his top flight debut in United's season-opening Premiership win against Richards Bay FC in August.

SuperSport turn their attention back to the Caf Confederation Cup, where they host Egypt's Modern Future at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Sunday (3pm).

United, bottom of group A with one win and three points from four matches, can keep alive their outside chance of the quarterfinals with a win against second-placed Future (seven points) in their second-last match.

City have a week to prepare for their DStv Premiership rematch against SuperSport at Cape Town Stadium on February 28.