DStv Premiership

Bartlett: This was the worst ‘worst officiating’ I’ve ever seen

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Cape Town Spurs coach Shaun Bartlett says he witnessed the “worst officiating” in his side’s 1-1 draw against AmaTuks at Athlone Stadium in their final Motsepe Foundation Championship clash on Sunday.

The Urban Warriors missed the chance to gain automatic promotion back to the DStv Premiership after they were held to a 1-1 draw against AmaTuks at Athlone Stadium on Sunday.

However, Bartlett felt his side were on the wrong end of the officiating after referee Cedric Muvhali after he awarded Tuks a free-kick in the 77th minute before overturning his decision and awarding a penalty instead.

Samuel Julies stepped up to take the penalty and made no mistake from the spot-kick to hand Tuks the lead but a late equaliser from Therlo Moosa earned his side a point.

As a result, Polokwane City finish top of the Motsepe Foundation Championship standings to gain automatic promotion to the PSL while Spurs will have to battle in the play-offs for a spot in the top-flight.

“Not the result I wanted from the beginning,” Bartlett told SuperSport TV.

“I am never one to complain, but this was probably one of the worst games I have seen as far as officiating.

“We could not get anywhere near the box everything went against us. We hardly touched (opposition) players but at the end of the day we got to keep our heads up and try and do it the hard way obviously through the play-offs.”

The Spurs mentor added by touching on how mentally straining it will be going into the play-off.

“We’ve extended our season now by other five or six weeks and we were hoping to get it wrapped up today but it didn’t happen,” he added.

“Now we just got to regroup, like you say get the players motivated again. Four games to go now and we have to do it the hard way but I think its possible to go and do it.

Bartlett also opened up on what his biggest challenge will be after missing out on automatic promotion heading into the play-offs.

“Well, I know everything was going into this game today. The more difficult part is now to get these boys going but I think the crowd has helped a lot,” Bartlett said.

“We’ve got to now refocus to see how we can get the boys to the mentality of, I still maintain we didn’t play the way we wanted too. I thin we made it a little bit difficult, Tuks.

“But at the end of the day, the occasion probably got to some of our players.”

Touching on Spurs’ overwhelming support at Athlone Stadium over the last couple of home games, Bartlett said: “Thats part of wanting to get this team promoted again its massive for Cape Town itself and all the thousands and thousands of players in Western Cape.

“We going to keep pushing and try our best, we going to make sure that we get through the play-offs and put everything in that. We have to leave everything on the field.”

Photo by Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix