Amakhosi goalkeeper Arthur Bartman is intending to up his game and improve on his performance's from last season as he aims to play a leading role for Chiefs in the upcoming season, the veteran net-minder has been hard at work in the pre-season training camp.

He told kaizerchiefs.com that anything but an improvement on his award and match winning performances from last season will not be accepted by himself, the coaching staff or the fans, "we always say that Chiefs is a big club and when you at a big successful club like Chiefs the standard of play that is expected from you week in and week out is very high".

He intends keeping up the high standard as he further explained, "our fans expect the highest standard and when you have a season like I did in the last campaign you set the benchmark and now it's up to me to take my game up a level and replicate and obviously better what was produced last season".

The Pietermaritzburg born Bartman is under no illusion that he will retain the number one jersey with the World Cup out of the way and with Itumeleng Khune focused fit he is aware that he has a challenging job on his hand in order to keep on playing regularly during the regular season.

"I know that there will be a lot of competition in the upcoming season, the competition is good for me because it means I will play better and so will Itumeleng and this kind of competition can only be good for the team".

Bartman enjoyed the FIFA World Cup and he used the extra time off to recuperate for the season ahead and is well rested, "the break was good I got to spend time in Pietermaritzburg and attended some World Cup matches.I reached a stage in the off season when I was eager to get back to training".