Tanjong Pagar United vs Woodlands Wellington

(October 15, Wednesday, 7.30pm, Queenstown Stadium)

Written by: Muhammad Yazid

Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League Second Tier clubs Tanjong Pagar United and Woodlands Wellington will battle it out for a better position in the league table as they approach the last of three games of the season.

Finishing the season in the bottom three is something certainly not in both teams’ agenda.

The Rams have only won four league games this season so far, and their latest was a 1-0 victory against Warriors FC in June.

Although it may be too late to start winning, they would be looking to end the season on a positive note.

Woodlands would be looking to close the gap on Tanjong Pagar as they are just three points behind the Jaguars.

Nothing but a win would be Salim Moin’s target as their best possible position to end off this season with would be eighth place.

However, if they fail to win the Jaguars, even eighth place will be well out of their reach.

The Jaguars will be coming into this game after a 3-1 win over Courts Young Lions and they would be relying on Monsef Zerka to lead the lines in attack, while Sebastien Etiemble is expected to be pulling the strings in midfield.

The Rams on the other hand have Moon Soon Ho and Chang Jo Yoon. The South Korean strike-partners are not experiencing their best of seasons, but expect the duo to create something out of nothing to lead Woodlands to a possible win.

Both teams have had their taste in overcoming each other this season, with Woodlands fancying a 1-0 win early this season, before Tanjong Pagar recorded a 2-0 win in the second round.

Suspensions: Ruzaini Zainal and Hanafi Salleh ( both Tanjong Pagar United)

Key Men To Watch

Tanjong Pagar United: Sebastien Etiemble

The box-to-box midfielder’s nifty footwork and inch-perfect passes would be something Woodlands would have to be wary about.

Etiemble has scored six goals this season so far, just one behind Tanjong Pagar’s top scorer Monsef Zerka. Expect him to get into scoring positions and also dropping back to support the defenders.

According to InStat, the Frenchman executed 61% of accurate passes in the narrow 2-1 loss to Brunei DPMM, thus Jaguars’ fans can look forward to the passes he should display against Woodlands.

Woodlands Wellington: Yazid Yasin

He came back with a bang in the game against Geylang International by executing three crucial point-blank saves in the opening ten of minutes, but could do nothing about the two goals his side conceded in the game to be victims of a 2-1 loss to the Eagles.

Yazid should be looking to continue his fine form against Tanjong Pagar, but the Woodlands defenders need to lend their hands in denying the strikers space and time.

Tanjong Pagar United – WDLLW

4/10/14    Tanjong Pagar United 3-1 Courts Young Lions

19/9/14    Geylang International 1-1 Tanjong Pagar United

30/8/14    Tanjong Pagar United 1-2 Brunei DPMM

25/8/14    Tanjong Pagar United 1-2 Geylang International

22/8/14    Tampines Rovers 0-1 Tanjong Pagar United

Woodlands Wellington – LLDLL

3/10/14    Geylang International 2-1 Woodlands Wellington

18/9/14    Woodlands Wellington 0-3 Hougang United

30/8/14    Woodlands Wellington 1-1 Harimau Muda

26/8/14    Brunei DPMM 8-1 Woodlands Wellington

22/8/14    Woodlands Wellington 0-2 Geylang International

Head to Head (S.League)

7/6/14       Woodlands Wellington 0-2 Tanjong Pagar United

21/3/14    Tanjong Pagar United 0-1 Woodlands Wellington

18/10/13  Woodlands Wellington 2-2 Tanjong Pagar United

4/8/13      Woodlands Wellington 2-3 Tanjong Pagar United

11/4/13    Tanjong Pagar United 1-1 Woodlands Wellington

4/11/12    Tanjong Pagar United 2-3 Woodlands Wellington

11/5/12    Woodlands Wellington 0-1 Tanjong Pagar United

3/11/11    Tanjong Pagar United 1-1 Woodlands Wellington

17/5/11    Woodlands Wellington 0-1 Tanjong Pagar United

4/3/11      Tanjong Pagar United 0-0 Woodlands Wellington