In our exciting new feature, My Welcome to the League Moment, KickOff catches up with Cape Town Spurs defender Clayton Daniels on his start as a professional footballer.
The Cape Town Spurs defender reveals on his very first experiences in the top-flight of South African football
"When I started playing professionally, it's good that I had a lot of senior players around me.
"They guided me in those early days as I was very aggressive.
"I had many senior players who advised me to stay calm and just focus on doing the basics right.
"So, what really surprised me was the number of people at the stadiums.
"It quickly made me realise I was playing in the big leagues now.
"I was playing for Ajax Cape Town at Athlone Stadium; it was during the 2006/07 season.
"But, the senior players told me to stick to the basics and pass the ball to the next player, I never looked back ever since."
"I played against a lot of good players in those early days as a defender.
"Jose Torrealba caused me many problems; as he was moving around a lot.
"He was running off the ball, he was all over the place, and it was difficult to mark him.
"Also Surprise Moriri. Before he dropped into midfield, he was a striker.
"They were both difficult to mark because they never stayed in just one position, and were difficult to mark.
"Those are the players that made it difficult for me to mark, and at that time defending was my strong point. I couldn't touch them.
"You learn by early mistakes not to dive in against players like that, they are very skilful.
"I just needed to control the spaces that they went to."
