Matsatsantsa proved ruthless in yesterday's season finale at Moses Mabhida Stadium as they defended their Ke Yona crown with a 4-1 win over the Buccaneers in a repeat of last year’s final, which SuperSport won 3-2.
United were one of the teams to beat in the first-half of the PSL season when they were, at one stage, Absa Premiership leaders, although their Telkom Knockout final loss to Cape Town City in December sparked a somewhat downward trend in form.
SAFA’s pursuit and eventual appointment of Baxter as the new Bafana Bafana coach in March further unsettled the Tshwane giants, although they were able to steady the ship enough to clinch Nedbank Cup glory after Saturday’s Durban demolition.
And Williams, who was part of Baxter's first squad for Bafana in the historical Africa Cup of Nations win against Nigerian earlier this month, was delighted to be able to hand the coach silverware on his exit, even if league glory eluded them this term.
“Obviously this is the perfect send off for the coach but obviously we would have loved to win the league title for him but it wasn't to be,” Williams tells snl24.com/kickoff in the mix-zone after the game.
“This is perfect send off for him and the most important thing is that we are happy. He deserves to be Bafana Bafana coach and he's just been amazing for us. Everything. Since he arrived, there has been positivity and that also rubbed off well on the team.”
Williams, who was also in goals in also last year's showpiece triumph, insisted Pirates were not as bad as the scoreline suggests, claiming instead that SuperSport were just able to make their efforts count.
“I won't say we were better but I just think we took our chances,” he adds.
“The chances we created and overall in the game we created nine, and we took half of that, so that is the positive sign for us and we’ve got quality strikers in [Jeremy] Brockie, Bradley [Grobler], Thabo [Mnyamane], Thuso [Phala] so we know that we'll score.
“Our defence was outstanding today and I only made one save against the team like Pirates... only one save, and that says a lot about our defence, so it’s an awesome feeling to be part of this.”