Struggling sides seek to stop slide
Gary Koh
info@sleague.com
Two struggling teams in the form of the Young Lions and Woodlands Wellington seek to arrest their slide in form when they face each other on Friday’s live game at Jalan Besar.
Both sides saw their respective RHB Singapore Cup campaigns concluded early when they lost in the opening round to foreign opposition recently.
The hosts were stunned by Cambodian side Phnom Penh Crown 2-0, while the Rams succumbed to Thai outfit Bangkok Glass by the lone goal in their respective cup matches.
With both teams struggling to get their act together, this match would be a contest to see which side would be able to shake off the woes first.
Young Lions coach Terry Pathmanathan welcomes skipper Obadin Aikhena back into the fold, after he served out his cup suspension in the shocker on Monday.
The Nigerian will be a definite starter for the match, barring a last-minute freak injury, but just which ten other players the former Singapore international will pick to join him is much harder to tell.
Pathmanathan has been left fuming by his charges’ abject displays in recent matches, and could make wholesale changes to the lineup in his bid to shake his boys off their slumber.
Whichever eleven he sends out, he is hoping his side can produce a more coherent display of passing and movement on the pitch if they are to make progress in the league standings.
Presently tenth in the table, finding the back of the net has been a major issue for the home team. With Aikhena their top scorer with three goals, the nominal attackers have to find their scoring boots if they are to stand a chance to beat Woodlands.
The only genuine advantage Young Lions have over their opponents is their familiarity with the Jalan Besar artificial turf.
Unlike the hosts, who have regular training sessions on this ground, Woodlands will be playing on this surface for the first time in their maiden live telecast game of the year.
After a decent start to the season, they have recently slid down the table with successive losses to Geylang United and Sengkang Punggol to their present second-from-bottom placing.
Like their opponents, scoring goals has been an issue for the Rams. Their foreign strike partnership of Egyptian Zakaria Yousif and Iranian Mojtaba Tehranizadeh, and Jamil Ali have scored six out of their total of eight goals at two apiece.
Woodlands coach Nenad Bacina will be looking to the trio to deliver the goods in attack after a barren spell in their last three matches in all competitions.
Anaz Hadee sits out of this match after receiving his fourth yellow in the last league match while English centreback Daniel Hammond makes his return to Jalan Besar since his transfer this year.
In their previous meeting at Woodlands two months ago, both teams produced a goalless draw. Would their struggle to achieve something out of the live game produce the same outcome?
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