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Cape Town - University of Pretoria coach Shaun Bartlett was feeling very optimistic about his side's chances of avoiding relegation after Saturday night's 4-2 win over Maritzburg United.
The Pretoria side went into the break 1-0 down, looking set to replace the Team of Choice as the league's bottom club.
But a four-goal blitz between the 48th and 60th minute saw AmaTuks secure a morale-boosting victory which took them out of the relegation zone, above Maritzburg and Jomo Cosmos, who play Bidvest Wits on Wednesday night.
"My voice is almost gone here, it feels like I played this game," said Bartlett after the game at the Harry Gwala Stadium.
"Sometimes a half-time break is just what you need. We needed to regroup, I needed to give them some information," he explained.
With six games still to play this season, including matches against some of Tuks' fellow relegation candidates, Bartlett will feel that the win over Maritzburg came just at the right time, and is hoping to finish the season with a bang.
"It’s an opportunity now to go on a seven-game unbeaten run, but we’ve got to do what we learn in training, we’ve got to apply, we’ve got to get the attitude and the right character going into games.
"This was a massive game because it’s direct competition. We’ve got to play Celtic, Cosmos, Polokwane, those are massive games - we need to beat the teams exactly in direct competition with us," said the former Bafana Bafana striker.
