Etiosa Ighodaro helped himself to a second half brace and his replacement Bradley Grobler scored in the last minute as a virtual second-string SuperSport United became the first team to book a place in the CAF Confederation Cup group stages with a 3-0 win over Gabarone United at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Friday night.
The South Africans thus won the battle of the Uniteds 4-1 on aggregate following a 1-1 stalemate in the first leg played two weeks ago in Gaborone, Botswana.
The Nigerian, usually used as a substitute but starting in place of Grobler who replaced him shortly after he scored the second goal, illustrated both his strength, persistence and shooting power with the strikes.
He opened the scoring with a brilliant persistent run on the left side of the box to leave a defender sprawled on the floor following a failed slide tackle. Ighodaro then calmly slotted home past goalkeeper Ookeditse Semelamela.
His second saw him gain possession deep into the visitors half and then using his body to out-muscle his marker before smashing a grass cutting shot through the advancing Semelamela's legs into the net.
The visitors had come close to restoring parity on 69 minutes, but Sheikh Sasay - scorer of the late equaliser in the first leg - blasted the ball against the side-netting from close range as the two sides upped the tempo after the break.
Late in the game Grobler headed in the third goal to make it a hammering that should have the other teams that will qualify for the group stages a little weary of drawing Gavin Hunt's men.
The first half had produced very little to shout about although you would have thought there was goalmouth action galore given the noise made by the travelling Gaborone United fans.
Incredibly outnumbering their hosts, the crowd - resplendent in red and white colours and brandishing their branch banners - cheered every promising move or good tackle by United.
Their efforts to motivate their team proved futile though, with the visitors hardly having a shot at the SuperSport goal.
The one promising chance they had just before the halftime whistle, they wasted - Thabang Khuduga doing well to break on the right on a counter attack but then delivering a very poor high cross when his teammate was free in the box.
SuperSport were no better themselves as they too did not have a single shot on goal.
Matsatsantsa's real opportunity in the initial stanza was a free kick on the right side just outside the box but debutant Abdurazak Hamza shot it low and wide.
With Hunt out in the stands given his lack of the requisite CAF qualifications to take charge, SuperSport had Grant Johnson barking instructions from the bench.
But Hunt could not help himself and continuously stood up to shout
He was quick to rush to the dressing room at halftime, no doubt ready to read his team the riot act for not delivering the goal that would have given their opponents a tough task.
And the team talk clearly worked as SuperSport appeared much more energized in the second half and got the goals which sees them into the money-spinning group stages where they are guaranteed a minimum pay day of the equivalent of a little over R7.5 million.
@Tshiliboy