No panic as winless White Swans and Rams meet

Syahrom Sulaiman
info@sleague.com

Albirex Niigata FC (Singapore) will host Woodlands Wellington at the Jurong East Stadium on Thursday as both sides seek to collect their first three points of the season.

With three games played and no victories to show for it, the White Swans and the Rams are refusing to push the panic button because of the poor run of results.

Instead, Rams manager Jeykanth Jeyapal and White Swans manager Bogdan Brasoveanu are looking at things in perspective, and they predict that it will be a matter of time before their respective clubs start to climb up the S.League table.

Jeykanth commented, “From a manager’s perspective, I guess it is a reasonable start to the season. We have a lot of new faces in the team so it will definitely take a lot of time before the team starts to gel.

“The results might not be there but the same cannot be said about our team spirit and morale, which at the moment is very high. There are also young and hungry players who are ready to prove themselves in the team.

“Three games do not reflect much. A club might also win all their initial games but then lose so many games after that. In my opinion, it is better to assess a club when they have finished at least two rounds of the S.League season,” he added.

Even though the White Swans are occupying the last spot in the league table, Jeykanth admitted that the Japanese side are no pushovers and they were unlucky not to have collected at least a point out of their first three games.

White Swans manager Brasoveanu said, “My opinion is that when we play well, the results will come naturally. Hopefully, we can play well and achieve the results this Thursday.

“Right now, a win can actually make us go up a few positions higher in the table because there’s nothing much separating the bottom sides,” Brasoveanu pointed out.

In the previous match, the White Swans were comprehensively defeated by Gombak United with a scoreline of 3-0.

Brasoveanu reflected, “We played our game but we did not take our chances. We conceded the first two goals and the third goal was a result of our defensive mistake.

“But we had good moments in the first half and in the beginning of the second half. Coach (Naoki Naruo) is worried about our performance in the opponents’ penalty box.

“The coach is very satisfied with the team’s build-up play, physical fitness, passing and the desire to win. But the reality is that if you can’t score more than your opponents, you can’t win the game,” Brasoveanu said.

On a positive note, the White Swans have no major injuries or suspensions to worry about.

On the other hand, the Rams are still sweating on the fitness of their Egyptian striker Zakaria Yousif, who received a slight knock on his ankle in the game against DPMM FC which they lost 1-2.

The Rams will also be without midfielder Hasrin Jailani, who is recovering from a recent ankle surgery. Coach Nenad Bacina will probably want to ease the playmaker back into S.League action.