Siphelele Mthembu enhanced his chances of staking a claim for Kaizer Chiefs' centre-forward position with a hat-trick in Saturday's 4-0 Nedbank Cup last-32 dismissal of Edu Sports, according to Amakhosi coach Stuart Baxter.

SIPHELELE Mthembu enhanced his chances of staking a claim for Kaizer Chiefs' centre-forward position with a hat-trick in Saturday's 4-0 Nedbank Cup last-32 dismissal of Edu Sports, according to Amakhosi coach Stuart Baxter.

Katlego Mphela, though, remains off the pace with fitness concerns despite being the scorer of Chiefs' other goal in a mismatch against amateurs Edu.

Mthembu got just his second start this season and added to his lone goal in the league derby win against Orlando Pirates in December. He led the line of a B team fielded by Baxter.

Baxter said Mthembu stands a good chance of filling the centre-forward role that has been left vacant after Kingston Nkhatha signed for SuperSport United.

"I think with the centre-forward situation we need to score more goals from the chances we create. Kingston only scored two this season while he was here," the Chiefs coach said.

"The whole story is about producing a No9 who can link up, move well, create space, and can be a handful up front and pitch in with goals. I think Siphelele is the one who can be the most like Kingston.

"Killer [Mphela] is behind in fitness and game experience. And because we have not got a lot of games left to play, this was invaluable for him today. But I guess if you pushed him into a full game now he'd get injured again."

Edu coach Bricks Mudau admitted his young SAB League side struggled to match Chiefs' intensity.

"At the end of the first half I was happy, because we'd contained them to some extent [at 1-0]. In the second half Chiefs' experience was evident. Our fitness level is nowhere near theirs. And we were exposed," Mudau said.

Chiefs meet Township Rollers in Gaborone, Botswana on Saturday in the second leg of their CAF Champions League preliminary round tie, with a 2-1 advantage from the first leg.