The Cape Town born Bartlett will be heading back to familiar territory on Thursday with the rest of his team mates to face an opponent in the form of Manchester United, next Tuesday in the Vodacom Challenge.

Bartlett who scored on debut for Charlton Athletic against Manchester United in the English Premier League some six years ago has always relished playing against the red devils. Having plied his trade in stadiums up and down the English Premier League for many years, who better than the former Bafana Bafana striker to help provide, Ernst Middendorp with much needed insight on their Premiership opponents.

Bartlett is not phased by coming up against United’s former England defender Wes Brown who Shaun knows only too well. “Throughout my time in England, one team I always enjoyed playing against was Manchester United. The thing is playing against the best brings out the best in me” said Bartlett.

The Chiefs striker is also looking forward to reacquainting himself with Wes Brown, his battles with the former England international date back some time. Shaun continues “I did hear that Wes was talking about how he was going to make it tough for the strikers out here - in the past we had some moments and I would like to roll back the years for him”

With the news that Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson was leaving his players who were involved in the World Cup at home, many commentators have been saying that a Chiefs victory will not mean much. Because of the absence of Misters Rooney, Van Der Saar and Cristiano Ronaldo, but Shaun begs to differ on this chain of thought.

Saying “much has been said about the players United will be bringing out here, if you look at the team we will be up against it is made up of United’s recent pass with players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes as well as their future the likes of Giovanni Rossi and Pique the Spaniard”.

Victory over Manchester United will be sweet for Shaun and his team mates, in the same way that the Chiefs players don the Gold and Black with pride, so their Manchester United counterparts will do the same when the two teams meet next week and play for pride and the long standing tradition of their club.

“All the United players who will be coming out here will want to take their chance and prove to their coach that they can do the job. Should the likes of Rooney or Ronaldo be missing through suspension or injury during the season United will need to call upon their so called second stringers”.

How possible is victory for Chiefs against Manchester United, taking into account that when the two teams met thirteen years ago at the FNB Stadium the game ended in a stalemate. Shaun is upbeat that Chiefs can gain their first victory over an English Premier League team for the first time since 1992 when they first played a team from England.

Fourteen years ago Chiefs narrowly lost 3-2, since the loss to Palace Chiefs have played four more English team and managed two draws and a two loses and are still seeking their first victory over an English team.