StarHub League Cup Group A

Tanjong Pagar United vs Police Sports Association (NFL)

(July 13, Sunday, 8.00pm, Queenstown Stadium)

Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

While his team opened their StarHub League Cup Group A campaign with an impressive 4-0 victory over Albirex Niigata (S), Tanjong Pagar United coach Patrick Vallee has refused to be tricked into thinking that the job is done and has urged caution.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s penultimate match against Police Sports Association at Queenstown Stadium, the Frenchman said: “Everybody thinks that it’s easy game but i can promise you that it will not be an easy one.

“We will always try to win. We have got the advantage and we have to confirm this on Sunday by reaching the quarter-finals which is our first objective but before that, we still have one more game to play.

“In football, you have to be very careful. What happened in the last game is not automatically bound to happen in the next game. We played well in the last game but it’s not finished.”

Although their opponents were mauled 13-0 by Albirex in their last match, Vallee believed that Police have the ability to cause some problems.

“I know it’s the first time Police are participating in the League Cup but I have seen them play once and they are a good team. Hence, we cannot think that it is finished because we still have to play another 90 minutes against them,” he explained.

“I can promise you that I have a lot of respect for this team because nothing is finished and we must respect all the teams like how I respect the other S.League teams.”

Police meanwhile will be keen to bounce back from the heavy defeat to the White Swans, even though progress to the quarter-finals would be a tall order now considering their inferior goal difference.

Team manager Hisham Saad said after the last match: “Against NFL teams, it’s a different ball game, you can see that Albirex were very smooth in their passing. In terms of fitness and experience, we also lost out quite a big deal.”

However, he stated they his team were not be going to give up without a fight.

“We will be back in training and we are going to fight and hope to prove that NFL teams can do something,” he added.

They will however have to make do without the suspended Hishamudin Khairudin after the midfielder was sent off against Albirex and have to dig deep in search of a replacement.

Suspension: Hishamudin Khairudin (Police)

Tanjong Pagar United – WLLLL

7/7/14      Tanjong Pagar United 4-0 Albirex Niigata (S) (StarHub League Cup Group A)

1/7/14      Tanjong Pagar United 4-1 Tampines Rovers (RHB Singapore Cup QF 2nd Leg)

27/6/14    Tampines Rovers 4-2 Tanjong Pagar United (RHB Singapore Cup QF 1st Leg)

23/6/14    Warriors FC 4-1 Tanjong Pagar United

18/6/14    Tanjong Pagar United 1-2 Albirex Niigata (S)

Police SA – LWWWW

10/7/14    Albirex Niigata (S) 13-0 Police SA (StarHub League Cup Group A)

22/6/14    Singapore Khalsa Association 0-2 Police SA

15/6/14    Police SA 5-2 Admiralty FC

8/6/14      Singapore Cricket Club 0-3 Police SA

1/6/14      Police SA 4-2 Eunos Crescent FC