Home United vs Geylang International

(4 November, Saturday, 7.30pm, Bishan Stadium)

Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

Plenty is at stake when Home United host Geylang International in the Great Eastern-Hyundai S.League at Bishan Stadium on Saturday night.

At time of writing, Home trail second-placed Tampines Rovers by four points while Geylang are three points clear of Warriors FC going into the final two games of the season.

Both teams come into this match on the back of resounding victories, with the Protectors putting four unanswered goals past developmental side Garena Young Lions while the Eagles thumped Brunei DPMM 4-1.

With an eye on this encounter, Home head coach Aidil Sharin lined up with an all-local starting eleven against the Young Lions as top scorer Stipe Plazibat started from the bench.

That mattered little though, as the two-time league winners still managed to come away with the three points.

“It was a hard decision to leave Stipe (Plazibat) out of the starting lineup today because he told me he wants to play,” Aidil admitted. “But I wanted to keep him in the best condition where he’s fresh – that’s where he will be special.

“I also decided to take out my key player; (goalkeeper) Hassan (Sunny) felt something for the past few games, Juma’at (Jantan) who just recovered from a hamstring injury and I didn’t want to miss Faris (Ramli) too. It’s nothing serious, just that I have been playing so many games and I need to save them for Geylang.

“The boys are enjoying their football. You can see they are creating and scoring. They make a lot of effort to do that and credit has to go to all of them,” the former Home midfielder added.

Aidil, who will be boosted by the return of Hariss Harun who was suspended in their last game, also shared that the injured Sirina Camara and Song Uiyoung could feature against the Stags in their final match of the season.

“Camara is a bit longer, his situation is more serious with a knee injury. Song has an ankle problem, but he’s been running well and we just need him to get back the match fitness before we can play him,” said Aidil.

“Hopefully both of them will be ready for Tampines.”

Geylang meanwhile will be gunning for all three points to seal fourth spot.

Under head coach Noor Ali, the Eagles have won nine in 16 games in all competitions and this should give them the confidence to avenge for their two defeats to Home this season. They fell 3-0 and 3-1 to the Protectors in April and September respectively.

One major factor behind the team’s good form is down to the resurgence of Shawal Anuar. The 26-year-old has plundered nine goals for Geylang so far, putting him one behind Shahril Ishak as they seek to end the season as the local top scorer in the S.League.

“It’s good to see Shawal playing this way,” said Noor Ali. “He took his chances well and is playing with confidence.

“The team have the momentum now and hopefully we end the season well.”

Home United – WWLLW

31/10/17 Home United 4-0 Garena Young Lions

27/10/17 Warriors FC 2-1 Home United

23/10/17 Home United 0-2 Tampines Rovers

20/10/17 Home United 2-0 Balestier Khalsa

15/10/17 Hougang United 0-2 Home United

Geylang International – WLLWW

27/10/17 Geylang International 4-1 Brunei DPMM

21/10/17 Garena Young Lions 0-4 Geylang International

15/10/17 Geylang International 2-3 Tampines Rovers

23/09/17 Geylang International 1-3 Home United

15/09/17 Warriors FC 0-2 Geylang International

Head to Head (S.League)

23/09/17 Geylang International 1-3 Home United

28/04/17 Home United 3-0 Geylang International

25/10/16 Geylang International 4-1 Home United

23/06/16 Home United 1-2 Geylang International

15/04/16 Geylang International 2-2 Home United