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Cape Town - University of Pretoria head coach Steve Barker is hopeful that last week's victory over Ajax Cape Town will kickstart their Premiership campaign.
The win was only the second of the season for AmaTuks, and lifted them out of the relegation zone due to Platinum Stars' inactivity.
Barker knows that his side need to string positive results together if they are to avoid relegation to the National First Division, and with this in mind he is eager to build on the win over Ajax.
"It wasn’t a surprise to me that we got such a good result. A lot of our performances have shown signs of progression and an improvement from the beginning of the season," he told SuperSport.
"But definitely to get a win under the belt was huge; to keep a clean sheet at home and score three goals gives us a platform to build on and have that trust and belief in ourselves that we can compete with the top teams on a regular basis..
"I do see it as a turning point. Sometimes you play well and don’t get the result and then you start wondering why and what’s wrong. You could even see the players once they got the win, that little belief and confidence coming back. We are not a team that is free flowing and scoring many goals, we’ve always had to be really solid, so to score three goals was great.
"I believe the next seven games before the (Christmas) break is probably key to our season, we need to finish strongly and get to around the 16-18 point mark to ensure that we can get to that 30 point mark as quickly as possible in the second half of the season."
Next on the agenda for Tuks is a league fixture away to Moroka Swallows on November 22.
The win was only the second of the season for AmaTuks, and lifted them out of the relegation zone due to Platinum Stars' inactivity.
Barker knows that his side need to string positive results together if they are to avoid relegation to the National First Division, and with this in mind he is eager to build on the win over Ajax.
"It wasn’t a surprise to me that we got such a good result. A lot of our performances have shown signs of progression and an improvement from the beginning of the season," he told SuperSport.
"But definitely to get a win under the belt was huge; to keep a clean sheet at home and score three goals gives us a platform to build on and have that trust and belief in ourselves that we can compete with the top teams on a regular basis..
"I do see it as a turning point. Sometimes you play well and don’t get the result and then you start wondering why and what’s wrong. You could even see the players once they got the win, that little belief and confidence coming back. We are not a team that is free flowing and scoring many goals, we’ve always had to be really solid, so to score three goals was great.
"I believe the next seven games before the (Christmas) break is probably key to our season, we need to finish strongly and get to around the 16-18 point mark to ensure that we can get to that 30 point mark as quickly as possible in the second half of the season."
Next on the agenda for Tuks is a league fixture away to Moroka Swallows on November 22.
