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Hartog has a point to prove

Cape Town - Maritzburg United captain Ashley Hartog says the onus is now on his team-mates to exploit the opportunities which should present themselves during the course of the current Premiership campaign.

Read: Maritzburg offloads Awal

The Team of Choice are currently seventh in the Premiership standings, nine points behind Bidvest Wits and Mamelodi Sundowns, who are the forerunners to secure a spot in continental competition next season.

"The extended break has been good for us and we are ready to go. There will always be patches of our game where we can improve, a few things we need to work on, but now we need to go out and show what we are capable of," said Hartog, whose team dropped points in four of their last five Premiership fixtures last year.

The matches against AmaZulu and Pretoria University should have been wins for Mariztburg and Hartog is well aware of it. However, the Mariztburg captain reminded the football fraternity that there was tremendous promise within United’s squad, especially under the tutelage of head coach Steve Komphela.

"By now we understand the coach very well and it’s up to all the players to get to the level where he expects us to be at," he said.

"Our main issue in the first round has been scoring goals. In too many games we have created two, three chances in the opening 10 minutes but failed to put the opponents under pressure by converting them," added Hartog.

"If we have early chances we have to score one or two, we have to learn how to kill teams off when we are dominating games."

The next assignment for Maritzburg United will be against Bidvest Wits next Tuesday, which is a fascinating fixture in the context of their season.

"It’s going to be a difficult game against Bidvest Wits. Like us, they can play the ball around.

“The first goal is going to be very important and I think the team that makes the least mistakes will win the match."

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