Geylang International vs Warriors FC

(16 June, Friday, 8.30pm, Jalan Besar Stadium)

Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

Warriors FC head coach Razif Onn has vowed to go on the attack when his side take on Geylang International in the 2017 Great Eastern-Hyundai S.League at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday night.

“We played Geylang in the first round of matches and we knew they would come,” Razif said. “But we are not going to sit back, our game plan has always never been to sit back.

“We will play our normal game and keep going, hopefully things will go as planned. If it doesn’t, then we will have to look at changing a couple of things tactically.”

Echoing the sentiments of his coach, defender Zulfadli Zainal believes it is imperative to get all three points if they are to harbor any hopes of achieving a top-three finish in the league this season.

“It’s always important to win a match after we lost the match,” said the 29-year-old.

“Nobody wants to lose consecutive matches. What’s most important is that we learn from our mistakes and not play the blame game. It’s easy to point fingers but that’s not the case when we win.

“The strength of a great team is not when the team is doing well but when the team is not doing so well. We must all rally together and get back our confidence and try win the game against Geylang.”

The nine-time league champions crashed out of the 2017 RHB Singapore Cup at the first hurdle after falling 4-1 to Cambodian side Boeung Ket FC before the international break.

Reflecting on the defeat, Zulfadli admitted it felt ‘funny’ that Warriors ended on the losing end, but is keen to learn from that

“I felt we were doing quite alright until the first goal that we conceded against the run of play,” he shared.

“We somehow didn’t recover from that, but the most important thing is that you need to wake up and not let setbacks like this affect us too much when things unexpectedly do not go your way.

“We have been preparing well and I’m sure everyone from the officials to the players, is eager to bounce back from the defeat in the Singapore Cup. We are all on the same wavelength when it comes to preparing for the upcoming matches and we are all fired up for it.”

Against a team they drew 1-1 in their first meeting this season, Zulfadli is expecting another tough encounter.

“It’s not going to be easy game, we know how tough a team Geylang can be,” he said.

“They have good players and we know strength and weaknesses. It’s going to be an interesting game for sure.”

Razif added: “The pace on the Jalan Besar pitch is going to be different; Geylang have a couple of fast runners in their team like Amy (Recha) and Safirul (Sulaiman) but hopefully we can hold them.”

Geylang International – WLLDW

26/05/17 Balestier Khalsa 0-1 Geylang International

20/05/17 Geylang International 1-1 Hougang United

11/05/17 Geylang International 0-1 Albirex Niigata (S)

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

20/04/17 Geylang International 2-0 Brunei DPMM

Warriors FC – DLLWL

29/05/17 Warriors FC 1-4 Boeung Ket FC (CAM) (RHB Singapore Cup)

19/05/17 Warriors FC 1-0 Balestier Khalsa

11/05/17 Warriors FC 0-2 Hougang United

29/04/17 Albirex Niigata (S) 4-2 Warriors FC

22/04/17 Warriors FC 2-2 Home United

Head to Head (S.League)

10/03/17 Warriors FC 1-1 Geylang International

14/10/16 Geylang International 2-1 Warriors FC

15/06/16 Warriors FC 2-0 Geylang International

01/04/16 Geylang International 2-2 Warriors FC

20/11/15 Geylang International 6-0 Warriors FC