Hunt inching closer to magic 1,000 games

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt will mark his 991st game in charge in a South African top flight games on Saturday when the club hosts Stellenbosch at Atteridgeville in the Betway Premiership.

Hunt, 60, is therefore on course to reach the milestone of 1 000 games in charge at the end of February or beginning of March.

He has taken charge of 13 games this season, made up of 11 in the league and two cup ties and has won four while losing six.

But his overall record is 413 wins, 285 draws and 294 defeats in 990 games in charge, with 1280 goals scored and 1024 conceded by his teams.

This is Hunt’s 27th successive campaign as a coach in the top flight, having not missed a Premier Soccer League season since he began with Seven Stars in the 1998/99 campaign.

After that he coached Hellenic, Black Leopards, Moroka Swallows, SuperSport, Bidvest Wits, Kaizer Chiefs, Chippa United and SuperSport again, winning four league titles and also all of the various cup competitions - the Nedbank Cup, the League Cup when it was called Telkom Knockout and the MTN8.

Early in the 2019-20 season, when he was at Wits, Hunt broke the record for the most games by a coach in the top flight, surpassing the 816 of Gordon Igesund.

Hunt’s first top flight club was Seven Stars, who he promoted up from the NFD with Benni McCarthy as the star player. Their opening game in the 1998-99 season was a 1-0 away win at Moroka Swallows but followed by a run of nine matches without a win.

Hunt made his name with newly promoted Black Leopards in the 2001-02 season, as they finished eighth and he was named Coach of the Year.

His first league title came in his 10th season in charge when he moved from Moroka Swallows to SuperSport United and he set a new benchmark when he won three in a row with the club from 2008 to 2010. A fourth title came at Wits in 2017.