Written By: Kenneth Ho

The captains of Home United and Balestier Khalsa are confident that their teams are ready to face-off in Home’s defence of the RHB Singapore Cup title on Friday evening.

Home will be gunning for its second consecutive title, seventh overall, while Balestier will be fighting to be crowned Cup champions for the first time in the club’s history.

While Home captain Noh Rahman believes that it’s harder to defend a title rather than win it, he also thought that the Protectors have shown they are up for the challenge.

“It’s always harder to retain the Cup after you win it last year, but this year I believe we had a tougher run to the Finals, so I believe this year is a bit different,” Noh said.

“All players are ready for the finals, the mood is very good at the moment, they are just as hungry as last year. We would be expecting a good fight against Balestier, we will go into the game respecting them but we will be confident.”

Balestier’s Jaslee Hatta will be the one guiding his men out of the tunnels – Paul Cunningham is currently injured and unlikely to feature in this game – and he feel thats Balestier too stands a good chance of bringing home the trophy.

“The mood’s been pretty great, we won the StarHub League Cup, but the Singapore Cup is more prestigious and we want to go all out for it.

“The pressure is not on us, the favourites are Home; they beat us last game, they have great players, national players and ex-national players, so the pressure is on them.

“We are just going out there to enjoy it, give our best, and if at the end of the day the result is in favour, it is good.:

Despite Home’s confidence, Rahman listed out a few Balestier players whom he felt needed to be kept on a tight lease.

“Goran scores a lot of goal, there is also Park Kang Jin  and other players well, we can’t be complacent now,” he added.

Jaslee will be hoping Rahman’s assessment is spot on, as he too felt the players mentioned will be key to Balestier’s hopes of silverware.

“Hoping it will be Park who changes the game for us, because he has been inspirational the whole season,” the Balestier defender said.

“But the one thing good about Balestier is that we have other good players.Goran Ljubojevic can score the goals, so does Kim Minho. Ruhaizad Ismail too does well when called up.