Football
ESPN staff 9y

S.League: Weaver wants Warriors to keep up the momentum in Malacca

Reigning Great Eastern Yeo's S.League champions Warriors FC head coach Alex Weaver wants his team to pick up where they left off from the Charity Shield match when they visit Harimau Muda.

The Great Eastern Charity Shield winners will make the short journey up to the Hang Jebat Stadium in Malacca, Malaysia, on Thursday evening for their second league match of the season with Razip Ismail's young tigers lying in wait. 

Warriors defeated Balestier Khalsa FC 1-0 to lift the shield at the weekend to kick start their season on a positive note, and they now have a chance to continue that winning momentum against the Malaysian U23 side that lost 3-1 to Brunei DPMM in their first match.

It is also worth nothing that Weaver has never been on the losing side against last season's bottom-placed team in four matches since taking over Warriors in June 2013.

While the Englishman is expecting three points from the game, he admits that he will not be paying too much attention to his unbeaten record.

"Of course, we are looking to win the game," the 2014 Coach of the Year nominee told ESPN FC. "I don't usually pay much attention to results against teams in the past, but we will certainly take a look at the past matches if it helps us to prepare for the game."

"This Harimau Muda team has changed quite a bit from the one that played last year in terms of playing personnel, but they still got the same head coach, and from their pre-season games it looks like they are playing a similar system to last year.

"We will also take a look at their match against Brunei DPMM and see what we can do from there."

In the 3-1 defeat against Brunei DPMM, Razip's charges struggled to cope with Brazilian striker Rafael Ramazotti's physicality up front, and allowed the forward to score a hat-trick.

Warriors may be tempted to utilise Miroslav Pejic, who has the same aerial ability as Ramazotti and the Croatian forward has a knack of scoring against Razip's team having found the back of the net three times in two matches last season.

But Weaver feels that playing Pejic upfront may not suit his game-plan on Thursday.

"I don't think that's really Pejic's game, he's not exactly and out-and-out striker or target man," said Weaver. "He can play against defenders on the ground, and he gives us lots of options on the front line with his capability to play anywhere across.

"But certainly we won't use the same system that DPMM used, because we are not the same team."

However, one thing that will be the same is that Weaver wants his team to not only get the points, but goals as well.

In the two matches against Harimau Muda last year, they put seven goals past the young tigers and Weaver understands the importance of having a healthy goal tally, with the title possibly heading for another photo finish come November.

"Certainly, we want to take our chances," Weaver explained. "We are looking good at this stage of the season. We created a lot of chances against Balestier and yet we only scored one. Hopefully we will get a few goals against Harimau Muda, along with three points."

In Thursday's other game, V. Sundramoorthy's Tampines side will play hosts to Courts Young Lions at their new home at the Jurong West Stadium.

Harimau Muda Probable Lineup: Farhan Abu Bakar (GK), Ashmawi Yakin, Wan Ahmad Zafran, Azrul Nizam, Annas Rahman, Nazirul Naim (C), Shahrul Igwan, Adam Nor, Kenny Pallraj, Faizat Ghazali, Kumaahran Sathasivam.

Warriors FC Probable Lineup: Neezam Aziz (GK), Syaqir Sulaiman, Daniel Bennett (C), Marin Vidosevic, Irwan Shah, Thomas Beattie, Kevin McCann, Shi Jiayi, Hafiz Rahim, Miroslav Pejic, Nicolas Velez

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