Chiefs coach Baxter opens up about Khune’s continued absence

Baxter had the ideal opportunity to give Chiefs fans what they wanted – play Itumeleng Khune in goal – in their Nedbank Cup Round of 32 clash against TS Galaxy on Saturday.

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Instead, Baxter opted for 27-year-old Brandon Peterson to start in goal with 26-year-old Bruce Bvuma on the bench.

Itumeleng Khune, a veteran at 34 years of age, was no where to be seen despite two encouraging performances for his Warriors FC team in the recent DStv Compact Cup where fans voted him to start ahead of Bvuma.

Kaizer Chiefs duly went on to embarrassingly crash out of the Nedbank Cup at the first stage, losing 1-0 at TS Galaxy.

Yet, Baxter has now sought to justify why he opted to start Petersen ahead of Daniel Akpeyi and Khune on Saturday.

“You’re right Itu played in the Compact Cup and we were pleased to see that he is keeping his level,” Baxter told the media.

“Daniel was away at Afcon, he came back after not playing in Afcon, missing a lot of our training. So it was going to be between the other three goalkeepers this evening. Brandon was outstanding in the camp in Cape Town.

“Reports from the staff there flagged up that he was really good. When I then watched the training, Bruce, Itu and Brandon, Brandon were performing very well.

“It was a close one, a close call. But we looked at the way we thought they were going to play and Brandon was the one we chose, his attributes suited this game quite well and I thought he had a good game, a very good game.”

Kaizer Chiefs will next be in action in an away DStv Premiership match against Cape Town City FC on Tuesday, 15 February at 19:30

Khune’s best chance of featuring for Kaizer Chiefs, for whom he has played a staggering 327 matches for in all competitions, appears to be if Baxter is axed – which may be closer to a reality than one may think!

Judging by fan reaction – as reported by The South African website – Amakhosi supporters are quickly growing tired of the Englishman who is in his second stint at the Soweto giants.

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