Maritzburg coach Fadlu Davids calls for ruthlessness against experienced CT Spurs

Maritzburg United coach Fadlu Davids says Cape Town Spurs are on the Premier Soccer League (PSL) level because of the experienced players in their setup and urged his troops to be ruthless against them.  

Spurs host the Team of Choice in the sides’ second outing in the PSL promotion/relegation playoffs at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday (3pm).  

Davids’ men are fighting to retain their top tier status while the Shaun Bartlett-coached Spurs are desperate to move up from the Motsepe Foundation Championship to DStv Premiership.  

Both sides are on three points after one match into the Mini-League having claimed victories against Casric Stars of Mpumalanga.  

Davids’ charges are at the summit of the log table because of their better goal difference.  

While Davids wants a win that will put them in good position to avoid the axe from the big time, he understands Spurs will be a challenge as they boast several experienced campaigners.  

“They have experienced players, some of our former players Michael Morton, Nazier Allie, Clayton Daniels, [Jarrod] Moroole, who is experienced as well in the NFD,” Davids said.  

“They have an experienced squad who know how to defend, but we have got to show our dominance in how we approach the game and how we plan to score goals.  

“It’s definitely a different game going into Spurs. They are more on the level of PSL and that is why I’m so tough on the boys tonight [on Wednesday against Casric],” he said.  

“We played really fantastic football at times, but we have to do it for 90 minutes and be more ruthless in front of the goals.”  

Davids was not impressed with how his side performed in the second half against Casric where they led 2-0 at halftime, thanks to a brace by Rowan Human.  

Though they held on to win the game by the same scoreline, United could have won by an even bigger margin.  

However, the players appeared to be too casual as Casric didn’t really threaten to make a comeback.  

“If we are the PSL team, we’ve got to show we are a PSL team and we can manage games [better than] the way we did,” Davids said.  

“I was disappointed that we didn’t kill off the game as I expected the players to do when we were 2-0 up at halftime. The possibilities were there and the crowd was behind us.  

“We had a fantastic passage of play to be able to score, but we kicked the ball against our players.”

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.