Bartlett eyes ‘most important’ clash against Casric Stars

With Cape Town Spurs set to host Casric Stars at the Athlone Stadium in their next PSL Promotion playoff tie on Wednesday afternoon, coach Shaun Bartlett labelled their subsequent fixture as the ‘most important’ of the gruelling mini-tournament.

Kick-off is at 3pm (SA, GMT+2)

After making it two out of two in the PSL promotion playoffs, Cape Town Spurs currently occupy top spot on the mini-table.

In kicking off their promotion bid, Spurs claimed a 1-0 win over Casric Stars at the Solomon Mahlangu Stadium last week. Thereafter, the Mother City outfit made a statement of intent by picking up a crucial 1-0 win over PSL side, Maritzburg United in their most recent fixture.

Now though, Spurs will turn their attention to Casric Stars yet again, this time on home soil. The Urban Warriors have made Athlone Stadium a fortress this season, picking up 15 wins in 18 games on their own patch in all competitions.

Speaking ahead of the tie, Bartlett mentioned that a win against Casric this week would put his side in good stead for promotion to the PSL.

“Nobody’s going to give us anything; everything that we’ve got rewarded for this season has been through hard work,” Bartlett said.

“That’s what we are going to continue throughout this campaign, we’ve got two games to go. The next one is most important against Casric at home,

“Three points will put us in a very good position, one foot in the DStv Premiership pretty much. That will also put the pressure on Maritzburg to go to Casric on Saturday and get a result otherwise our three points on Wednesday would pretty much wrap up the whole campaign.”

Casric Stars, on the other hand, are yet to record a victory in the PSL promotion playoffs. The Mpumalanga outfit suffered a damaging 2-0 loss to the Team of Choice last week and now face an uphill battle in their bid for PSL glory.

Also, Casric Stars suffered defeat the last time they took to the Athlone Stadium, as goals from Therlo Moosa and Boitumelo Radiopane gave the Western Cape outfit a 2-0 victory in the regular 2022-23 Motsepe Foundation Championship season.

In the head-to-head battle, the two sides met on three occasions, with Spurs picking up two victories compared to just one win by Casric Stars.

Reflecting on the playoffs, Casric Stars coach Bucs Mthombeni mentioned that the players should use this time to market themselves with the view of being scouted by PSL outfits.

“Remember football is also a marketing for some players,” said Mthombeni.

“And then if ever they drop their heads, if ever the agents and the teams are looking…

“I know that all 30 [PSL] teams are watching these games. Maybe four or five players can get a chance.

“Because remember in football, you need to always want to play in a higher [level]. You can get opportunities. I see agents are starting to knock and checking.

“They [players] cannot drop their heads, we’re still left with two games. Maritzburg is still coming home and it’s a good test for us.

“It’s just unfortunate that we lost two games in a row.”