SuperSport United chief executive Stan Matthews has assured that a top-six league finish would be enough for coach Kaitano Tembo to stay put beyond this term.

Having served as an interim coach for nearly seven months, Tembo eventually took the reins on a full-time basis last August, on a two-year deal.

While he has already guided Matsatsantsa to the MTN8 final, which they lost to Benni McCarthy's Cape Town City, SuperSport have been inconsistent in the league.

They've won just seven of their 18 league games, with six defeats and five draws.

Their inconsistency has sparked rumours they've earmarked McCarthy to replace Tembo.

It was City again that dumped SuperSport out of the Nedbank Cup via a 2-0 win in the first round last Saturday.

Nevertheless, Matthews has moved swiftly to emphasise the club's faith in Tembo.

"I don't think we are the kind of a club that makes decisions to fire coaches based on game by game. If Kaitano can finish in the top-six, it would be quite a good season and that feat would save his job," Matthews told Sowetan.

"Now we have 26 points after 18 games and last season we had 26 points after 24 games. So we are in a better position.

We want to give him a chance, we cannot just be trigger happy. We don't have unrealistic expectations, we want to finish in the top-six."

Matthews also outlined how SuperSport aim to mould Tembo to be in the company of Pitso Mosimane and Gavin Hunt. The pair are the only coaches who stayed more than five years at the club.

SuperSport coaches:

Shane McGregor; (1998-99)

Bruce Grobbelaar; (1999-01)

Pitso Mosimane;
( July 2001 - June 2007)

Gavin Hunt;
(July 2007 - May 2013)

Kaitano Tembo;
(Aug 2014-3 Sept 2014 interim)

Cavin Johnson;
(June 2013 - Aug 2014)

Gordon Igesund;
(Sept 2014- Jan 2016)

Stuart Baxter;
(Jan 2016- June 2017)

Eric Tinkler;
(July 2017-March 2018)

Tembo* permanent;
(August 2018- present)