JOHANNESBURG – A ruthless Wits mauled amateur side Boyne Tigers 4-0 on Wednesday night to advance to the Nedbank Cup’s last-16.
The ABC Motsepe League side from Limpopo was no match for the former South African champions, who went 4-0 up without even breaking a sweat in the first half.
Simon Murray was involved in all those goals. The Scottish striker assisted in both Haashim Domingo’s strikes.
Once Domingo completed his brace, Murray bagged his own double by exploiting the naïve and toothless Tigers defence.
The Limpopo side sharpened themselves with matches and advice from their Premiership big brothers, Polokwane City and Baroka FC.
They also watched the Clever Boys’ 3-3 draw with Rise and Shine on Sunday at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium, taking notes on what areas to exploit.
But the intelligence Tigers collected from that match was useless.
Wits coach Gavin Hunt made nine changes from that team to give a number of fringe players a run, including goalkeeper Ricardo Goss, who has constantly watched the ever-present Darren Keet.
Those fringe players were still too strong for the amateur team, who were easily brushed aside by superior opponents.
Even though Hunt showed his frustration, emotionally gesticulating when his team failed to put their opponents to the sword, he was more relaxed compared to how he normally is.
He was even able to steal a moment to go to the stands and “chill” there a bit with his team on autopilot against opponents who hardly kicked off.
Tigers were lucky to only concede four goals as Wits were all over them like rash.
Tigers looked confident before the match started. When the heavy downpour started, they remained on the pitch to continue their warm-up while Wits scampered for cover.
They entered the pitch with their chest out, confident that they would write another fairytale story in a tournament full of fairytale stories – including one amateur team, Baroka, who went all the way to the final and eliminated Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows en route to the last four.
There was no fairytale story in Milpark on Wednesday night. Wits crushed their lowly rivals and put them in their place.
FT: 🔵⚪️ Bidvest Wits 4⃣-0️⃣ Boyne Tigers 🐯
A comfortable victory to progress into the Last 16! #BidvestWits #NedbankCup #Nakanjani pic.twitter.com/lGw66qGVoJ
— Bidvest Wits (@BidvestWits) January 23, 2019
Wits needed a response after throwing away two points in Polokwane. Those dropped points saw Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns move closer to the Clever Boys, who are the early pacesetters.
Hunt slammed his defence for conceding three goals from set-pieces.
The defenders he fielded against Tigers kept a clean-sheet in a contest that resembled a training match at times.
Wits will now watch the rest of the last-32 matches, comfortable with their name already in the hat for the draw.