Shaun Bartlett will be eyeing his first win as the head coach of the University of Pretoria when the Capital outfit welcome Free State Stars to Tuks Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Kick-off is at 7:30pm CAT.
AmaTuks suffered a 2-0 defeat to Platinum Stars in Bartlett's first game in charge, but having only had a day to work with the team heading into the fixture in Rustenburg, the former Bafana Bafana striker will be confident he can lead the club to victory having had more time to convey his methods.
Inconsistency has been the story of Tuks year with the Tshwane side unable to convert on wins over Jomo Cosmos and Mpumalanga Black Aces in the past few weeks.
"As a team we need to get points as quickly as possible and we have two opportunities to do that in the next few days. We play Free State Stars and then Orlando Pirates, both at home - home games for me will be very important in terms of accumulating points," said Bartlett.
"When I cam in I expected confidence to be high and I told the players to use the game against Platinum as another boost, but unfortunately things didn't work out that way.
"It is not talking about what happened in the past, it is about me reinstalling confidence at the club and giving proper guidance in order for us to climb the table."
Ea Lla Koto slumped to a sixth defeat of the season, going down 1-0 to SuperSport United last time out.
But despite the defeat, head coach Giovanni Solinas is happy with the teams performances of late.
"I am very happy with the performance of late, the manner in which we played. Yes we need to improve in front of goal, the final third needs more work," said Solinas.
Despite currently occupying eighth place on the log standings, the Italian mentor insists the clubs target is still to avoid relegation, something that won't change until they hit 34 points.
"Our target is survival, we have to try and get 34 points as quickly as possible and then maybe we will change our objective. At the moment the team is only focused on survival, this is a very difficult championship.
On their next opponent, Solinas had the following to say: "Tuks is a good team, in South Africa there is no easy game. Every game is a tough game, every game is balanced and difficult. I respect them."
In head-to-head stats, Stars and Tuks have met in seven league matches since 2012/13.
Ea Lla Koto have two wins compared to one for AmaTuks, while four matches have been drawn.
The University side has won one of their three home matches against Stars, suffering one defeat in the process.
Earlier this season the teams played to a 1-1 draw in the Free State, with Danny Venter scoring for the hosts, while Lennox Bacela netted for the visitors.
The teams’ last four league meetings have produced just six goals – Stars are unbeaten in that time.
No comments:
Post a Comment
drop your comment about your football hero, their fashion style, like who dresses most, who drink most ,who hang out most like going to club , who plays with woman most and so on