Bacina looks to clip rising Eagles
Mohd Sham
info@sleague.com
Fresh from a ten-day sojourn without a fixture, Woodlands Wellington will on Thursday evening tackle a resurgent Geylang United outfit buoyed by a recent reshuffling of their managerial structure.
The Eagles started the season with an awkward-looking coaching triumvirate of Mike Wong, team manager Lim Tong Hai and technical consultant Seak Poh Leong. But Wong took sole charge three weeks ago and the team has reaped two wins from their last two games.
Woodlands coach Nenad Bacina acknowledged that Geylang are in fine fettle following victories over the Super Reds and Home United.
“Geylang have won against two good teams in their past two games, which will give them quite a bit of confidence,” said the Croatian.
“With them having a change in their coaching system, this has given them a new boost so it is going to be a very difficult match against a team on form.”
Bacina also noted the match-winning form of Geylang’s young Englishman Lloyd Butler, but warned that his opponents on Thursday have more than one ace in the pack.
“They have Lloyd Butler who scored the winner in their past two games, plus the likes of national defender Baihakki Khaizan, Rastislav Belicak and Miroslav Latiak so they do have a very good squad.
“We will respect them and we know they are two points in front of us in the table, but the onus is on us to try get the three points,” added Bacina, who masterminded a famous win over his former side SAFFC earlier in the season.
With the Rams having embarked on a gruelling six-game marathon over 27 days prior to their 1-0 victory against Balestier Khalsa in their last league match, Bacina admitted that their ten-day breather was welcomed in more ways than one.
“These ten days came at the right moment for us and we had time to rest and recharge our batteries.
“Before our match against Brunei DPMM, we played three matches in nine days and we also had to go through another three-games-in-nine-days spell, which resulted in our 4-0 loss to Home United, so we have been playing a lot of games recently.
“As well as recuperating, we also had time to work on our fitness levels as well as to work on a few tactical issues,” he said.
The Rams have yet to taste a home victory so far this campaign, and the affable Bacina says he does not count home ties as an advantage.
“This is our home match and we always try to approach our home match wanting to win, but I really don’t see the league as having home and away matches,” he said.
“Singapore is so small and it takes just a few minutes for teams to travel to each other, so it doesn’t really matter to me. I only really consider travelling to Brunei to play DPMM, and maybe Jalan Besar Stadium, as away games, and I stress to my players that there is not really a matter of home and away games in this league.
“But of course we want to do well at our Woodlands Stadium and we always want to do well for our fans,” added Bacina.
Woodlands will have to make do without the services of Luis Eduardo Hicks who will sit out this tie through suspension.
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