A despondent Cape Town Spurs coach Shaun Bartlett said it was hard to see light at the end of the tunnel for his beleaguered side after they lost for a record-equalling sixth time on Tuesday.
The 2-1 loss at home to Lamontville Golden Arrows at a rainy Athlone Stadium meant Spurs became only the second side in Premier Soccer League history, after Umtata Bush Bucks 24 years ago, to lose their opening six league fixtures of the season.
Bartlett lamented a lack of consistency from his players and missed chances in the game where they were leading 1-0 at halftime.
“You’ve got to be consistent; you can't just have a couple of spells of three, four or five minutes, and then suddenly you have a lapse of concentration, and you allow them back in the game.
“I think when we dropped our intensity, that's when they came back into the game, and they got more confidence. But yeah, it's very difficult to see a light at the end of the tunnel, besides the fact that obviously the number of games that's left.”
Spurs will next be up against neighbours Cape Town City in a much-anticipated derby on Saturday, September 29 with Bartlett now having to rally his players.
“Obviously, the negative is the fact that you lost the game. Maybe there are a few positives that we’ll have to reinforce because the morale and confidence are not at the level that you want them to be.
“But at the end of the day, if you go into the next game with that same level, then it's not going to help us as a team.
“So, we've got to try and encourage and motivate for the next 10 days. And work on things that we didn't want to happen.
“But the two goals that we conceded, those are the things that were the basics. Defending crosses is what we've done for the last two weeks to ensure that we don't concede, and we had that lapse of concentration where we didn't just defend the ball and lost,” Bartlett added.