Bartlett set to be first casualty in DStv premiership

The writing seems to be on the wall for Cape Town Spurs coach Shaun Bartlett to be the first coaching casualty in the DStv Premiership.

This is after Spurs became the second side in PSL history to start a season with six straight defeats, thanks to their 2-1 loss to Golden Arrows at Athlone Stadium on Tuesday. Mthatha Bucks in 1999 became the first team to lose their six first games in the league.

Bartlett himself has sounded rather discouraged about their dire situation. The former Bafana Bafana star indicated that he’s never experienced something like this in his career both as a player and coach, implying the situation is hard to understand.

“It’s very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel beside the fact that obviously the amount of games that’s left [they are left with 24 games and perhaps draw hope from that to turn it around],” Bartlett said after the Arrows defeat.

“It’s the first time for me as a coach [and] as a player [to suffer six straight defeats at the start of the term]... and it’s probably something that’s way difficult to grasp in a sense, where like I’ve said, out of the six games, five of the games we probably didn’t deserve the results we ended up with [but] again maybe we didn’t work hard enough in order to get the results.”

Late last month, Spurs released a statement, reiterating their “full support” of Bartlett. “Although our results have been disappointing, coach Shaun Bartlett has the full support of the Cape Town Spurs board,” read the statement at the time.

Yesterday, Spurs’ chairman Ari Efstathiou couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Urban Warriors next face Cape rivals Cape Town City at Cape Town Stadium on September 30. Bartlett feels this derby could be what the players need to turn things around, albeit he would’ve liked to face a different side. 

“Obviously the derby is more than just a result. We are playing for the pride of Cape Town and maybe that’s something that’s needed or necessary where the players need that extra motivation in order to get a result,” Bartlett said.

“But for me, at the end of the derby we have to pick ourselves up, maybe it’s not the best thing [to play City next], we probably would have wanted another game on the weekend to bounce back quicker but now you have to make do with what's ahead of you.”