Gavin Hunt feels SuperSport United deserved more against Cape Town City

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt was delighted to burgle a point after his side salvaged a last-minute 1-1 draw against Cape Town City, but he deplored playing football on a “rugby pitch” on Wednesday night.

City were headed for a slender 1-0 DStv Premiership win against the visiting SuperSport in Green Point, via Khanyisa Mayo’s goal, but then conceded an equaliser a few minutes into added time.

SuperSport scored the equaliser through a free-kick by Lyle Lakay, a City old boy who had four spells with the club in the past decade.

Despite the close call, Hunt felt his side deserved more than a point from this away fixture.

He said his team did well on the surface at Cape Town Stadium, which hosts the Stormers’ rugby matches.

“If you give an away performance like this on what, I mean, was a really bad pitch, I’m pleased,” said Hunt.

“Jeez! It is a rugby pitch, and I feel sorry for Cape Town City playing here every week. The ball is bouncing too much, and it is difficult for the players.

“I think we deserved more. I thought we created a lot of opportunities. I thought we played well as the away side, but I’m very disappointed with the result.

“We’ve picked up seven points in Cape Town this season. There are not many teams that are going to get that in their three away games, so that’s a good sign.”

City and SuperSport shared the points, and remain in second and third place respectively on 31 points.

They are 11 behind unbeaten log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, who have two games in hand over them.

There was no happy ending for City coach Eric Tinkler, who was in a foul mood after a potential six-pointer evaporated into the Atlantic Seaboard night air and became a one-pointer.

Apart from surrendering a likely victory, Tinkler was livid with the way referee Skhumbuzo Gasa handled the match, and condemned the general standard of officiating.

However, no one could fault Gasa for awarding the free-kick, and Tinkler had a clear view of the flashpoint.

Matsatsantsa a Pitori scored the equaliser through a free-kick by Lakay, which came about after a reckless foul by City rookie Ramazani Tshimanga.

“That goal puts me in a foul mood because it’s the last kick of the game. Let’s call it a six-pointer, so we’ve thrown away five points,” said Tinkler.

“I feel for Rama (Tshimanga) because he knows he made a mistake going out there and giving away the foul. There was no need to do that – they were going out wide anyway.

“But that’s one person, and we don’t defend the foul. Then the free-kick comes in and we don’t deal with that.

“If we won, we could have created a small little gap between ourselves and them (SuperSport) and potentially Stellenbosch.”

Tinkler was scathing of the way referees are handling matches.

“I have to say something about the referee because I think it’s killing our game,” the former Bafana Bafana midfielder said.

“They (refs) give fouls when there’s no fouls, no advantage when there should be.

“Week in, week out it’s the same thing. It’s becoming tiring. We need to make that change. People will start getting fed up.”

City’s next league assignment sees them host local rivals Stellenbosch at the Cape Town Stadium next Tuesday.