Bartlett: Spurs need to convert draws into victories

Cape Town Spurs drew 0-0 against Uthongathi in Durban on Sunday to go through the month of April undefeated, but head coach Shaun Bartlett wants more from the team.

The Urban Warriors have drawn almost half of their 27 games in the GladAfrica Championship this season to sit 12th in the standings with three fixtures left to play.

Bartlett admits the situation could have been very different for the club had even half of those draws been converted into victories, which would see Spurs challenging for promotion in the run-in.

The coach has urged his players to take more risks in the closing stages of matches to get the win and says he has been working on changing their mentality into a winning one.

“Having played four games in the month of April with three draws and a victory, most people will be pleased to go undefeated, but as head coach and a club we pride ourselves a lot on making sure that we play to win matches,” he said.

“You look at the Venda [Football Academy] game and the Polokwane City game where we gave up that lead to eventually draw the games was somewhat disappointing.

“So the last time out against Uthongathi it was slightly different. We were quite solid at the back, created a few opportunities, but couldn’t convert any and I think those are just certain things in a mindset that we have to change.

“We’ve spoken to the players, we’ve got 13 draws this season and I think that in itself says that we need to do a lot more in the last 15 minutes of a game and take a little bit more risks in order to push and see how we can get the victory.

“Had we converted half of those draws into victories it would have been a different story as far as the position of the club is concerned.”

Next up for Bartlett’s side is a trip to Black Leopards on Sunday and Lidoda Duvha have shown what a positive mindset can do after winning five games in a row to all but secure their league status for next season.