Woodlands Wellington vs Home United

Rams set sights on Home Paul Green info@sleague.com Woodlands Wellington will be gunning for another big-name scalp when they host Home United on Tuesday night. Nenad Bacina’s Rams have notched wins against SAFFC, Gombak United and DPMM FC this season, and Home will be aware of their threat at the Woodlands stadium. Two home wins inside a week may have boosted the Protectors’ points tally and propelled them into fifth spot, but the true test of their aspirations is when they are on the road and their latest loss at Gombak, little over a week ago, does not inspire too much confidence. It is going to be a task-and-a-half for coach PN Sivaji and his men, a crunch match if ever there was one. Failure to deliver here and the tag of the Great Eastern-YEO’s S.League’s ‘worst travellers’ could easily be slapped on them. Win this one and the full weight of expectation of their fans will return, pressure that the players may learn to thrive on. A full-strength side delivered twice at home, but a weakened one lost at Gombak. Fielding a full-strength starting eleven again here is a tall order for the club after their recent heavy programme. Home can hardly take comfort from beating Woodlands 4-0 at Clementi Stadium at their last meeting as we now know the Protectors have struggled to reproduce that same form away from home. There is a perception that home advantage in Singapore is over-rated at times, but here is one club that still has to prove it is as easy to win on the grounds of their opponents as on their own. Woodlands, on the other hand, have been inconsistent at their own headquarters and are keen now to show more sound form on their own turf. Losses in their last two home games hardly inspire confidence among the Woodlands faithful, but two earlier wins at Woodlands Stadium showed what the side was capable of. After drawing their opening three home matches it was not until they faced DPMM that the Rams broke through for their first win on home soil. By then it was almost the end of May and valuable ground had been lost, despite a sensational 3-2 win away to SAFFC and a nail-biting 1-0 at Toa Payoh against Balestier Khalsa. Having beaten three of the top sides at least once this season, Tampines and Home United are the only prized scalps left to claim. The Rams will be going all out to address that on Tuesday night. A draw at Tampines and Balestier is the best Home United have so far managed from eight road trips. Furthermore they have failed to score a goal in five of those encounters. These are issues coach Sivaji and his men will be well aware of, of course, and anxious to address. Where will the goals come from? Peres de Oliveira has not been at his imperious best this term, though he has weighed in with a few goals occasionally. Increasingly, it seems, the scoring has to come from the midfield these days, or perhaps from Norikazu Murakami, who has come off the bench in the latest two home games. Kengne Ludovick has begun to find the net again so maybe he can produce the goods again this time? The Cameroonian has now notched nine and could be poised to strike a rich vein of scoring form. It was he and Murakami who netted last time against the Rams so history may repeat. A big contribution from the Japanese star is likely to tip the scales in favour of the visitors, who were grateful for the three goals the former SAFFC and Balestier man put away in the first meeting between these teams which finished 4-0 to the Protectors. Watch out Woodlands if he strikes similar form! Nenad Bacina, the Rams’ coach this season, knows it will not be easy. “We are confident of success against Home United on Tuesday,” he told sleague.com on Sunday morning after his side had beaten Gombak 2-1 the previous night. “I know they beat us 4-0 the last time, but we held them to 0-0 at half-time and they only scored twice from set-pieces to get their noses in front and we’ll be guarding against a repeat of that this time. “I only have four players in my squad who played regular first team football for any club last season; so even if we have some older players we do not have the same experience as many of the other sides. Chilean Luis Eduardo Hicks, red-carded at Jurong West after collecting two cautions, and his fellow defender Syaiful Iskandar, who picked up his fourth caution of the season against the Bulls on Saturday night, will need to sit out the game against the Protectors. “I’d been hoping to rest Azlan (Alipah, captain of the Rams) for the Gombak game, but there was an ankle injury to Hasrin Jailani just before half time so I had no choice but to bring on the skipper, and now I can’t rest him due to suspensions as well. Squad players Kamal Nasir and midfielder Asraf Abdul Rashid will be the most likely replacements for the suspended and injured players, with the latter likely to fill in at left back. “We were badly affected by the build-up of games during the League Cup and right afterwards so we were unable to do much on fitness maintenance with the players,” the coach explained. “I think the fact that we finally did some work on that after the SAFFC match contributed a great deal to our success at Jurong West. “Motivation alone was not the key to winning that; it was general fitness. “Now we and Home United are in the same position after both playing on Saturday night and our ability to play for eight minutes of stoppage time at Gombak with only ten men showed how important it was for us to be fit. “We scored both our goals towards the end which shows you how we were able to keep going the whole game. “This result has given us a lot of confidence ahead of our next match and even with some players out I still feel we can get a result. “A lack of consistency has been our main obstacle to getting better results and we’ll be hoping to improve on that on Tuesday,” he laughed. “Jamil Ali came on and scored the winner for us and many may have wondered why he did not start last time. “It is all about keeping players fresh, so that tactic proved correct for us on Saturday night,” he pointed out. Fans will be looking towards Iranian striker Mojtaba Tehranizadeh and Egyptian Zakaria Yousif for big contributions as the pair look to set the S.League alight. The latter netted again in the Gombak game and is getting into his stride now. Although the pair have only three goals apiece they are beginning to forge a promising partnership and more goals seem certain to flow. This match at Woodlands Stadium on Tuesday night could define the season for either club, something that neither coach would surely deny.