Bartlett: Adversity builds character

Shaun Bartlett is hoping his young Cape Town Spurs squad will gain experience from some of the more trying circumstances they’ve had to endure this season.

The Urban Warriors haven’t had the rub of the green in recent matches after seeing a few questionable decisions go against them, most notably at Platinum City Rovers and the visit of Polokwane City.

Spurs were denied two penalties for handball in the 1-0 defeat to Rovers in March, while Abednigo Mosiatlhaga had a legitimate goal ruled out for offside in last month’s 1-1 draw with Rise And Shine.

Bartlett’s side also had two penalties awarded against them last weekend, the second of which came in the 88th minute as Black Leopards secured a 2-1 win to halt our four-match unbeaten run.

But the coach believes moments like these build character and he’s urging his players to show a greater desire to go in search of victory when the chips are down.

“Officiating will always be questionable whether it’s against us or for us and it’s something that when you’re at the bottom you don’t get calls to go your way like we didn’t get the legitimate goal against Polokwane ruled for offside that clearly wasn’t,” he said.

“But these are the things that we have to deal with week in, week out and hopefully it will build some character in our squad as well with the young players.

“We’ve got a very young squad, an inexperienced squad and I think for most of these boys it has been a learning curve but at the end of the day we’ve got to make sure in the future that we also develop a stronger willingness to go and win games.

“We’ve had far too many draws this season and just not able to convert those draws into wins, we could have had a very different scenario as far as the league table is concerned.”