It’s all about winning – Gavin Hunt

The Winelands outfit earned a valuable point on the road on Wednesday night, holding reigning Betway Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns to a 1-1 draw at Loftus Versveld Stadium.

Asked how he has guided the side from the bottom of the table in January to within reach of a top eight finish, Hunt credited the backing received from CEO Rob Benadie as a key factor.

"The CEO backed me at the beginning and the staff have backed me regardless of what I said we needed to do. Sometimes we need to play ugly to get results and then other times we can expand a little bit here and there, which we've done.

"At the end of the day, we all romanticise football, but this game is always about getting points."

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With five games to go, Stellies can end up in fifth place if they win all their remaining fixtures and hope those above them drop points. 

However, Hunt argues that his job – for this season at least – is done. 

"When I arrived in January, my first job was to get the team safe, and I like to think that I got two teams safe this year.

'"We're safe now so we can start to look up a little bit because we've had some good results."

On holding Sundowns to a stalemate in dramatic fashion, the four-time league winner revealed his charges had to take a different approach. 

"It was a fantastic performance from us, we had a plan and we wanted to play with no strikers. We sat in a block and I actually thought we had the best chances in the game. Nobody gave us a chance so I'm happy with the performance, and now we move on."

Hunt added that despite his tactics being on the conservative side, they ran Sundowns close in their own backyard.