Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah President Cup players must try to win their away game against Selangor today (Thursday) to keep alive their hopes of playing in the knockout stage.The players should not give up hope even though mathematically they have only a slim chance and they also need a big favour from other teams with their current 10th position.
The win over Perlis on Monday has narrowed the gap on eighth place Penang by three points after the islanders' loss to Pahang in their last match, but Sabah are not alone gunning for a place in the quarterfinals.
They still have to worry about Negeri Sembilan who are a place above them with the same number of points but have a much superior goal difference.
Therefore apart from winning and hoping Penang and Negeri Sembilan to slip up in the remaining matches, they themselves also have to score as many goals as possible to improve their goal difference which are currently six and seven behind the two teams respectively.
The line-up today will see youngster Mohd Fariss making his second appearance for the
team partnering Jenius Karib who has returned from a match suspension in the midfield.
Coach Justin Ganai was very happy with the Under-19 player on his debut on Monday and is confident that he will improve with more games under his belt.
Umareng will maintain his position as the left flanker with Hafizan who scored the winner on Monday on the right while Sabri Sahar will link up with Zulmanshah Aling who is still struggling with a slight ankle injury in attacks.
The defence will welcome back Shazree Ruhip Ismail who was badly missed for the past few matches due to injury.
He will take over Gerald Sean Mojikon in the right back position with Badrul Affendy and Benerlys Raim in the central defenders role and skipper Dendy Lowa on the right.
The ever outstanding Robson Rendy Rening will again man the post.
