Hougang United captain Nurhilmi Jasni wants his side to keep their concentration levels high when they travel to the Hang Jebat Stadium in Malacca to take on Harimau Muda on Wednesday night.
The last time the two sides met in the Great Eastern-Yeo's S.League back in April, the Cheetahs let slip a two-goal lead in the final 10 minutes to draw 3-3 at the Hougang Stadium.
Goals from Nurhilmi, Kunihiro Yamashita and Fairoz Hasan seemed to have rendered Amirul Hisyam's penalty a mere consolation. However the Young Tigers staged a late comeback through a Shahrul Igwan penalty and Adam Nor Azlin's header.
The unpleasant memories of that game are still firmly etched in the Nurhilmi's mind ahead of this upcoming clash.
"In that last match we played against them, we simply did not control the game when we were in the lead," he admitted. "It's important that we learn from those mistakes and make sure we go in with the right approach this time round."
Six of the 28-year-old's nine goals since 2013 have come against Harimau Muda, but ironically his side have found it hard to beat the young Malaysians in recent times. Before the six-goal thriller four months ago, Razip Ismail's boys have also triumphed twice out of three head-to-head encounters last season with both coming at Hougang.
Nurhilmi could not explain the weird statistic but has vowed to change things starting from this Wednesday.
"I can't really say that they're a difficult team to play with," he said. "Every team has their strengths and weaknesses. So whichever team can exploit their opponents' weaknesses, they will have a higher chance of success.
"Those matches are in the past and we have to move on from there. We're up to this new challenge and we're going to approach this game like it's a final. Every game from now on is important to us and we're definitely looking to collect all three points in Malacca."
It was a disappointing last outing for Salim Moin's men as they fell to a 3-2 defeat against Balestier Khalsa two weeks ago.
The result left them in eighth position in the 10-team table, two points behind Harimau Muda who have played four games less.
However Nurhilmi remains confident that his side has what it takes to move up the standings.
"We didn't take our chances in that game, so we got punished for that," he admitted. "We're definitely gutted with the defeat, but we have since regrouped and started to focus for the rest of the season.
"There's still a lot more matches to be played, so we can definitely climb up the table if we keep collecting points."
Harimau Muda Probable Lineup: Farhan Abu Bakar (GK), Ashmawi Yakin, Syawal Nordin (C), Annas Rahmat, Azrul Nizam Muhammad, Arif Anwar, Amirul Hisyam, Adam Nor Azlin, Syazwan Andik, Faizat Ghazali, Syafwan Syahlan
Hougang United Probable Lineup: Ridhuan Barudin (GK), Faizal Amir, Kunihiro Yamashita, Tengku Mushadad, Delwinder Singh, Nurhilmi Jasni (C), Carlos Delgado, Atsushi Shimono, Fazli Jaffar, Vuk Sotirovic, Diego Gama