Wits overcame the CAF debutants 3-0 courtesy of goals from Dillon Sheppard, Sibusiso Vilakazi and Markus Lecki, but Hunt believes the Clever Boys should have put the tie to bed by a much larger scoreline.
“There’s nothing much [to tell], really … we could have made the game safe,” Hunt tells snl24.com/kickoff.
“But, I mean, it was difficult. If you take Durban on the hottest day of the year and you times it by 10 – that’s what you need to do – and it was on an astroturf, which was impossible to play on.
“It was an old astro, very bumpy, so you couldn’t really get much out of it. We had so many opportunities but it was walking-paced football because of the heat.”
The former SuperSport United coach admits that he knew very little of his opponents, while adding that researching teams is overrated, and explains his team selection on the day.
“I didn’t know anything [about Lightstars]; I didn’t even know what colour jerseys they played in. But I think research is overrated half the time, and I think after five minutes you can work out who and what,” he adds.
“At the end of the day, I couldn’t field a full-strength team. If you take the left side, we had [Vincent] Pule out, Daine [Klate] was out, so Sheppy [Sheppard] played.
“In the midfield, Ben [Motshwari] was battling [with a niggle] so we had to give other people a game; Papy [Faty] is out; Jabu [Shongwe] had eye problems so he couldn’t play.
“Up front I didn’t want to play Henrico [Botes] on that surface because of his age, so we played [Joaquim] Lupeta and ‘Vila’. We also gave Buhle [Mkhwanazi] a game because he was suspended [domestically] from a red card.”
Hunt also believes the aggregate score from the first leg should be enough to secure their passage into the next round, but assures they will treat the return leg match with the utmost respect.
“Three-nil should be enough for the next game [return leg], but we’ll treat the game properly and play properly, that’s for sure,” Hunt concludes.