Kaizer Chiefs face lower league opposition in Richards Bay on Sunday afternoon in the Nedbank Cup, but coach Gavin Hunt has insisted that he cannot afford to play a weakened team because of the situation where the Glamour Boys find themselves after an indifferent start to the season.

The Soweto giants got the season off to a disastrous start, but they have started to find their feet under Hunt and have climbed up the DStv Premiership in recent weeks.

This weekend Amakhosi will host the first division (second tier) side at the FNB Stadium in a last 32 encounter but it won’t be straightforward as the KwaZulu-Natal side are currently top the first division standings.

Speaking in the build-up, Hunt admitted that his side will need to be wary against Richards Bay and that he will not be playing a weakened side.

“I think teams from the NFD [first division] play with much more intensity and the game is helter-skelter over there,” he told the media.

“I don’t think a lot of the top-flight teams are used to those types of games and if you look at the average height of those teams, they’re quite small and nippy.

“It looks sometimes like they’ve got 15 players on the field which is difficult to play against.”

“We’ll obviously try our best in every game and we’ll play the best eleven that we think is suitable for the game and take it from there because there’s no freebies that’s for sure,” said the former Moroka Swallows, SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits coach.

“If you look all around the world you see teams playing weakened teams in Cup competitions but it’s something we can’t afford because of the situation we find ourselves in.”