Promotion play-offs to decide Michael Morton's future

Spurs went into the final round of Motsepe Foundation Championship fixtures last Sunday needing a win for automatic promotion, but were held to a 1-1 draw by the University of Pretoria, while Polokwane City won 4-0 to leapfrog them into the top flight.

Morton graduated from the Orlando Pirates youth ranks in 2008 and just completed his 15th season in the Premier Soccer League, including the past three in the First Division. He says the play-off results will determine his future as a player. 

"I was hoping I was gonna be in the PSL last week. But we're obviously gonna have to fight it out these next four games, and obviously, a lot can happen, and I think we will see a lot happen,” he told SABC Sport.

“To be honest I haven't made up my mind about what the future holds. We'll see, I don't know if I can do another year in the NFD, we'll have a discussion with the club, but my retirement hinges on the outcome of these play-offs", he claimed. 

The emotional rollercoaster of leading the standings into the final day, only to miss out on automatic promotion, took a toll on the 35-year-old and his colleagues.

"Thank goodness they gave us a couple of days off, because I think everyone was a bit emotional. A tough pill to swallow, obviously, the win was there for the taking. It took us a couple of days to get over it, to be honest. But we've got to reset now I suppose.”

Morton reflects on how it unfolded, but struggles to paint an accurate picture of just how difficult things were made for them by external factors.

"It's hard to explain. Major decisions don't have to go a certain direction for there to be some stuff that's going on. If momentum is broken currently, throughout the game, every time the ball goes in the box and you don't know why it's a freekick, no one is really telling you, they are telling you to just push in the box, but no one is really pointing at it.

“Who's making the foul, Clayton [Daniels] gets a yellow card in the first 30 minutes for, I don't know. I don't think anyone knows why he got a yellow card. Puts your centre-back on a yellow card early in the game. It's a lot of things, but we still had to get the goal." 

Morton recently reached 300 professional league appearances, a rare feat for many footballers.