Kota Kinabalu: SABAH FC will be taking on Kuching City FC in the Borneo derby tonight at the Kuching State Stadium as the league season resumes after the recent Malaysia Cup round of 16 matches.
It is going to be a real test for Alto Linus and Martin Stano as well as the players following the departure of Datuk Ong Kim Swee.
We did well to beat PT Athletics FC in the Malaysia Cup competition but the result was expected by many anyway.
I am sure no one had any doubt of our ability to progress against a semi-pro team featuring some ex-internationals who reached their prime a long time ago.
I will be expecting a much tougher match for the boys tonight. Kuching City are no easy meat this season. They have been doing well and are slowly climbing up the table lately.
They are now lying in fifth place, only eight points behind us with a match in hand. They are also in good form recently with the 3-0 aggregate two-leg win over Penang FC in the Malaysia Cup round of 16.
I also understand that Sabah FC may be without several first team players who are nursing some injuries after the PT Athletics second leg match.
It is going to be a big blow to the team with the absence of these players and I just hope the likes of Saddil Ramdani, Gabriel Peres, Darren Lok are all fit enough to play and the long-absent Park Taesu can make a return to the team.
Without these players in the team and the coaching experience of Datuk Ong, Alto and company will have to work their magic to motivate the players.
They must employ all the knowledge they had learnt from Datuk Ong over the past two years to ensure the team can keep the momentum going after winning four league games on the trot in addition to the home and away wins against PT Athletic in the Malaysia Cup.
The players who are going out tonight must also do their part and play from their heart to give the fans at home something to cheer.
I have confidence in them as they are professionals and the easy victories over PT Athletics should give them the belief that they can do it without Datuk Ong.
We had beaten Kuching City 2-1 early in the season and lets hope the boys can deliver again to bring home the three points from Kuching to strengthen our third place position in the table.
Good luck boys!
