Competition: Paya Lebar Punggol FC vs Young
Lions
Date & Time: 6 July 2005 7:30:00 PM
Venue: Hougang
Battle of the Beleaguered
Teams
The month of June could hardly be considered as a fruitful one for
both Paya Lebar Punggol and Young Lions.
With only two draws and four defeats between them, both teams will
be hoping July can be a much more productive month, particularly
for Paya Lebar who continues to rewrite S-League history with each
passing week.
Currently 15 games and still running, the Seahorses have yet to
gather a single point but performances in their previous few games
have indicated that it will be a matter of time that they do.
With the exception of the 0-5 drubbing at home by champions
Tampines Rovers, Paya Lebar could count themselves very unlucky to
have fallen to 2-3 defeats when they could have at least gone away
with draws against powerhouses Home United and SAFFC.
Perhaps the team's reshuffling, which saw 15 new players and a new
coach arrive last month, still needs time to gel a luxury Young
Lions coach Fandi Ahmad will not be allowing them.
I treat all games as equal be it against Home, Geylang or Paya
Lebar.
Moreover, Paya Lebar have strengthened their team with their new
signings which include two former Young Lions players (Jafri Hashim
and Shukor Zailan).
The Young Lions are the second lowest scorers in the league with 18
goals - only Paya Lebar is behind them on 11 and Fandi hopes that
his makeshift strikeforce of Itimi Dickson and Khairul Amri are now
sharpening their claws in anticipation of Wednesdays clash against
the leagues leakiest defence.
If you have seen our previous games, the Young Lions have played
very well but we just could not score.
Therefore, we must take the chances that come our way on Wednesday
and hopefully boost our attackers confidence.
Indeed, with the second leg of the RHB Singapore Cup coming up on
Saturday, the Young Lions offence will need all the confidence
they have to score at least three goals to overcome a 1-3 deficit
against Tampines.
However, Fandi cannot afford to rest players either as his
injury-depleted squad is now down to its bare bones and also
because he recognizes the threat of the Seahorses.
I dont know why but whenever Paya Lebar play against us, they
always play extra hard, Fandi mused.
We only beat them 2-0 last time we met but they are a much better
side now and I expect a close game on Wednesday.
