A delighted Shaun Bartlett expressed his delight at proving doubters wrong as Cape Town Spurs wrapped up an undefeated run in the PSL Promotion/Relegation Playoffs with an important draw against Maritzburg United.
Spurs were frontrunners for automatic promotion but squandered their chance on the last on the last day of the season allowing Polokwane City to leapfrog them and were forced to head to meet Casric Stars and Maritzburg United at the Relegation/Promotion Playoffs.
?? "IYAHAAAAAMBA i-Maritzburg."The scenes at full-time narrated by @mapensela11 as Cape Town Spurs secured promotion back to the top-flight ?? pic.twitter.com/NlNXRbnPh7
— SuperSport Football ?? (@SSFootball) June 14, 2023
After three wins from three in the playoffs, the Urban Warriors went into the match in need of just a draw and managed to keep a rampant United side at bay for the full 90 minutes to seal promotion back to the top flight.
"With the disappointment on the last day of the season, everyone thought that we were going to crumble because it was massive. To lose the league title by goal difference is not easy but we bounced back," Bartlett said.
"We had a two-week break, we gave the guys a couple of days off and you can see it in the way we applied ourselves. That's four clean sheets in four games.
"I said to the players, 'when we win games and don't concede don't talk to me about goal difference, every interview I did after each game was about goal difference, goal difference and goal difference because of what happened on the last day of the season but our players knew that we needed to fight to get this promotion.
"Four clean sheets back up everything, the way we played these playoffs."
Meanwhile, the draw means Maritzburg United's 15-year stay in the top-flight of South African football has come to an end.
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