Hougang United defender Delwinder Singh wants his side to take the challenge of Geylang International seriously as the two sides lock horns in the TNP League Cup on Saturday night.
Following their respective victories against Brunei DPMM and Singapore Recreation Club (SRC), the two clubs currently occupy the top two spots in Group A. That sets up an interesting clash at the Hougang Stadium, with the victorious side promised a semifinal spot, with one game to spare.
Having trounced the Eagles 4-1 in a friendly played just a fortnight ago at the same venue, it may seem like Hougang have the psychological advantage coming into this game. However Delwinder warned his side not to take things lightly.
"We cannot go into this game against Geylang thinking that it will be easy," he told ESPN FC. "Their result against SRC showed that they meant business. They didn't hold back and it signals that they want to go far in the competition.
"It's going to be very tough against experienced players like Yazid (Yasin) and Hafiz (Osman), who knows what it takes to win such games. What coach Salim (Moin) told us after the last game was very true - we cannot be complacent at this stage and even DPMM is not out of contention (to qualify) yet."
The game will take extra significance for Delwinder, who turned out for the Eagles back in the 2013 season under then-coach Kanan Vedhamuthu.
"That was not too long ago and some of the players whom I've played with are still there," he recalled. "There's Shah Hirul, Khairulnizam (Jumahat) and (Jozef) Kaplan, as well as the both Hafizs (Osman and Nor) which I've played with at both Tanjong Pagar and Geylang."
It was a perfect debut for the 22-year-old against DPMM, as he formed part of the Cheetahs backline which shut out the Wasps for the first time this season. That was also his first competitive game since October 2014 where he captained a Singapore U21 side in the Vietnam Newspaper Cup, something which was clearly pleased about.
"It's been almost nine months since I last played, so it was definitely a good morale-booster going forward," he said. "Before the game, I was worried that I might not be able to last the 90 minutes but surprisingly I did so without any moments of cramp."
For now, Delwinder is optimistic that his new club can build on the momentum of that shock win against DPMM and continue their resurgence against Geylang.
"The winning goal came from the individual brilliance of Vuk (Sotirovic), but in order for the ball to get to him, it has to be a team effort," commented the former Courts Young Lions man.
"We were a tight unit throughout the game and it's also good that now there's a good mixture of young and old in this team. You can see that the senior players like Tengku (Mushadad) and Fairoz (Hasan) are guiding the younger ones like Kenneth (Chang), Muhaymin (Salim) and myself.
"Things have started off well for me at this club and now we have to prove that the previous result is not a one-off."
Hougang United Probable Lineup: Ridhuan Barudin (GK), Yuki Uchiyama, Kenneth Chang, Tengku Mushadad, Delwinder Singh, Nurhilmi Jasni (C), Carlos Delgado, Atsushi Shimono, Fareez Farhan, Vuk Sotirovic, Diego Gama.
Geylang International Probable Lineup: Yazid Yasin (GK), Yuki Ichikawa, Hafiz Osman, Kento Fukuda, Syed Thaha, Nor Azli Yusoff, Mustaqim Manzur, Tatsuro Inui, Jozef Kaplan (C), Hafiz Nor, Bruno Castanheira.