Hougang United defender Tengku Mushadad says his side will not be daunted by the challenge of Albirex Niigata (S) in the Great Eastern Yeo's S.League clash at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday evening.
The White Swans have been in splendid form since the league resumed in late July, winning four and drawing one as they aim to win their first ever league title since their inception in 2004.
They are now two points behind leaders Brunei DPMM and have a chance to go top with a victory, but Tengku believes the Cheetahs can stop that scenario from materialising.
"We know we're the underdogs going into the game," said 31-year-old Tengku. "But if we can play like the way we've been doing in the past few games anything can happen.
"If we show fear and give Albirex the chance to play their game, they definitely have the players who can beat us. Coach Salim Moin has worked out a good game plan for us and we're confident we can get a good result against a fast-paced team like them."
After a poor first half of the season which saw them collecting just seven points from 11 games, Hougang made massive changes in the mid-season transfer window and brought in players such as Diego Gama, Vuk Sotirovic, Carlos Delgado and Fazli Jaffar.
The revamped Cheetahs side have since turned things around, picking up 10 points from six games to move off the bottom of the table. Last week's gritty 1-0 victory away in Malacca against Harimau Muda pushed them to eighth spot, just three points behind sixth-placed Home United.
Tengku says the improvement in their form is not accidental.
"They key reason for our better performance is improved communication between the players," he explained. "The new players have blended in nicely with the rest of the team and we often encourage each other to push harder in games.
"For example, in the last game against Harimau Muda they kept coming at us after we had scored. That's when we communicated to sort things out at the back and managed to hold out for the win."
Tengku, a former Singapore international with eight caps, is also grateful that Hougang has handed him a second lease of life after his old club Tanjong Pagar United decided to sit out of the S.League for the 2015 season.
After missing the first few games of the season due to fitness related issues, he has managed to fight his way into Salim's starting eleven. Tengku has forged a fine partnership with Kunihiro Yamashita at the heart of the Hougang defence.
Nonetheless he believes there is still room for improvement.
"I feel that my form can actually be better," he admitted. "We did concede quite a number of goals before the clean sheet against Harimau Muda."
"My partnership with 'Kuni' has been improving game by game and we communicate a lot during training as well. That helps us rectify the problems which we usually encounter."
Hougang United Probable Lineup: Ridhuan Barudin (GK), Lau Meng Meng, Kunihiro Yamashita, Tengku Mushadad, Delwinder Singh, Nurhilmi Jasni (C), Carlos Delgado, Atsushi Shimono, Fazli Jaffar, Vuk Sotirovic, Diego Gama
Albirex Niigata (S): Yosuke Nozawa (GK), Mikiya Yamada, Kento Fujihara, Takahiro Saito, Itsuki Yamada, Hikaru Mizano, Fumiya Kogure, Shun Inaba, Rui Kumada, Atsushi Kawata, Rion Taki