Cape Town Spurs Legend Shaun Bartlett Hopes to Take Team Back Into the PSL Big Time, Face Uphill Task in NFD

• Cape Town Spurs coach Shaun Bartlett is hoping to take the legendary club back to the lofty heights of the Premier Soccer League
• The 49-year-old made his name at the club in the mid-1990s, a key player as the side took South African football by storm, winning the National Soccer League in 1995
• The team is comfortably off the pace in the current race for a spot in next season's DStv Premiership, but that did not temper Bartlett's ambition

Cape Town Spurs coach Shaun Bartlett intends to help the club get back to the big time of the Premier Soccer League.

Bartlett was part of one of the greatest club sides South Africa has ever seen back in the mid-1990s. Boasting the likes of Bartlett, Andre Arendse, David Nyathi and Roger Lupiya to name but a few icons from that era, Spurs won the 1995 National Soccer League handsomely and to much acclaim.

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Spurs is currently in the GladAfrica after many years in the wilderness. Bartlett was appointed as head coach last October, lifting them from off the foot of the log table to a respectable but unsatisfactory 12th place.

It's unlikely that they can get to third place in the division, which guarantees them a spot in the Premiership playoff matches. The team is on 23 points, 12 behind the University of Pretoria, with nine matches left in the season.

Bartlett said to SowetanLIVE:

“For me, it’s exactly 30 years ago when I signed for Cape Town Spurs in 1992. There’s sentimental value in me coming back to get this club where it belongs. Spurs have always been close to my heart.

“This was a club that has been a stalwart in Western Cape, with name changes from Ajax Cape Town to Cape Town Spurs. At the end of the day it’s still the same set-up. For us, it’s still the same ambition, we want to be in the DStv Premiership. That’s where the club belongs.

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GladAfrica Championship: Title race remains tight as 7 teams race for first place with promotion beckoning

With nine rounds of matches remaining, seven teams in the National First Division, or the GladAfrica Championship can conceivably win the title and automatic promotion to the DStv Premiership.

As reported on Sports Brief, log leaders Richards Bay kept their noses in front on 38 points, three points ahead of the nearest chaser Polokwane City.

Both teams had to settle for a point in a tense 0-0 draw in a top-of-the table clash.