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Rustenburg - Newly appointed University of Pretoria coach Shaun Bartlett was left disappointed with Mpho Maruping’s dismissal in the second half of their clash against Platinum Stars.
It was not a good start for the Cape Town-born tactician at the helm of the Students as AmaTuks suffered a disappointing 2-0 loss to Dikwena at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on Sunday - courtesy of Solomon Mathe and Siyabonga Zulu strikes.
Bartlett insisted that the sending off of Maruping distracted him from his game plan as he was forced to regroup and make unnecessary substitutions.
“It’s always difficult when one of your players get a red card in the game, because you are then forced to regroup and make changes and I think that obviously posed big problems for us,” said Bartlett.
“But sometimes you just have to stay behind and work harder and that’s something we really need to work on in the next few weeks.”
Bartlett joined AmaTuks last Friday, succeeding the sacked Sammy Troughton and the former Bafana Bafana striker hinted that it was a bit harder to make an impact as he did not get enough time with the players ahead of the clash.
“I have said it before that it’s difficult to make an impact after just one and a half day.
“But also if you make those mistakes we did you are going to get punished. When you come up against a quality and confident team you need to work hard.
“But these are the things we need to work on obviously for the next coming weeks like I said.”
AmaTuks will be looking to get back to their winning ways when they face Free State Stars at home in their next league assignment on Wednesday (19:30 kick-off).
