Chiefs and Santos both enter this weekends ABSA Premiership clash at the ABSA Stadium in Durban on the back of loses in their most recent matches, for Chiefs it was a 1-0 defeat almost a fortnight ago to Mamelodi Sundowns while Santos were eliminated from the Nedbank Cup on Sunday. Prior to that the Cape Town outfit dropped valuable points in a goalless draw with Jomo Cosmos on the 11th April in Cape Town, all of these inconsistent results has made Chiefs captain extra cautious of Santos. With Santos still having an outside or mathematical chance of winning the league they will want to avoid dropping further points, like wise Chiefs need to a win against Santos and Bartlett believes there can be no compromise for The Amakhosi. He and his charges will have hunger and desire to be successful on Saturday evening.

Top place

Santos may have dropped points against Jomo Cosmos but they will still be feeling that catching up to SuperSport is within their grasp, and after exiting the Nedbank Cup success on the league front is all that remains for them. Bartlett is not much concerned about a Santos back lash but is trading into the game cautiously, “Santos must feel that they can still win the title, which will mean that they come into this game trying to obtain the points they let slip in their last league outing” added the Chiefs skipper. He continued onto say “which means that they come into the game hoping to get points which will keep them in the hunt, it is our job to ensure that we get the points. If it is motivation that is needed we too have it, as we lost our last league game which we feet we should not have, and as a team we have an objective to fulfill before the season is out”.

Roller Coaster

Currently The Amakhosi stand in 10th place on the league standings but Bartlett believes over the next week that could easily change, starting over the weekend when Chiefs host Santos in Durban. About improving on their current log position Bartlett said “the scramble for top eight places could not be tighter, if you look at the current standings a single win will move us into seventh place. We do not want to wait till the end to confirm finishing inside the top eight, Santos might be a tough oposition given that they are third on the log we aware of the challenge they pose”.