My players want to prove themselves in the playoffs: Tuks coach | DStv Premiership

After failing to gain the automatic promotion to the DSTV Premiership, University of Pretoria will be looking to put the disappointment behind them ahead of the promotion/relegation playoffs set for later this month. 

Richards Bay were crowned GladAfrica Championship winners, with AmaTuks finishing second. The Students will have the second bite of the cherry when they fight it out in the playoffs, and their coach Tlisane Motaung has not lost hope of a return to the topflight. He is confident his charges can stop the dominance of PSL teams in the playoffs.

“We haven’t given up on promotion to the PSL; in fact, we always planned to play in the playoffs because we didn’t start the season well. It would have been a bonus if we gained the automatic promotion to the PSL, but the boys are focused. They know we still have a task at hand. 

“We will wait for the league (DStv Premiership) to wrap up this coming weekend so that we know all our opponents, then we can start to prepare,” Motaung told FARPost.

He is aware that PSL teams have dominantly won the playoffs in the past, but he insists his boys are eager to prove their readiness for the elite league. The Pretoria side will be buoyed by the good run they had in the Nedbank Cup, in which they lost to Royal AM in the quarterfinal.  

“We know that PSL teams have been winning playoffs for the past couple of years, but we want to change that. We know PSL teams are more experienced, and it’s not a fluke that they are in the topflight, so we are going there to challenge them; I even told my players that if you want to test yourself, it has to be against the best. You know the motivation of playing with big names because players want to prove themselves, so we hope that works in our favour, and we gain promotion,” said the Free State-born coach.

The promotion/relegation playoffs start on the 29th of May, with University of Pretoria and Cape Town All Stars anxiously waiting to learn whom they will face. TS Galaxy, Swallows FC, and Baroka FC are all fighting to avoid relegation. 

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